Sunday, September 13, 2009
On Sportsmanship
Posted by John Branston on Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 9:50 AM
Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe have raged against fans, umpires, linesmen, and themselves in matches at the Racquet Club of Memphis. Their antics were endured in silence by the linesmen and lineswomen, but they were no less boorish than William's f-bomb-laced tirade of the lineswoman who called a ridiculous foot fault on her at the end of her semifinal match against Kim Clijsters.
One of the biggest changes in tennis is how much better the sportsmanship is since the Connonrs-McEnroe era.
Just a few years ago in a meaningless match in a seniors event at the Racquet Club, McEnroe lost it. He screamed at the umpire and then bent over and smashed a ball. It bounced back into his face, stopping play for a few minutes before the match could continue.
Connors' specialty was more contemptible. He made a calculated show of upstaging linesmen and women for the entertainment of the crowd while his opponents seethed. A woman who called lines several years told me Connors' favorite line was a whispered "can you say 'you suck?'"
Both Connors and McEnroe turned their bad-reputations to their commercial advantage — Connors as the gamer who left everything on the court, and McEnroe as a pitchman using his signature line "are you serious?"
Not everyone was amused. Memphian Derrick Barton, who played at Wimbleton in the 1940s for England and later taught tennis at the University Club, thought that Connors, McEnroe, and Ilie Nastase threatened to ruin the sport he loved with their antics.
One way or another, players got the message. The men and women pros who come to Memphis are invariably professional and generally confine their outbursts to occasional shouts and glares. In college tennis, coaches and umpires have taken control by reining in players and even learning curse words in foreign languages so they can impose penalties fairly.
The foot fault called against Williams was a bad call. Replays showed that, if anything, her foot barely touched the line. It was like calling palming on Michael Jordan in the closing seconds of a close game or a penalty in overtime of the seventh game of hockey's Stanley Cup. You let the players decide the outcome at that point unless the violation is flagrant.
Williams "manned up" ("womaned up"?) at the post-match press conference, sort of. Broadcaster Mary Jo Fernandez handled the post-match interviews. In the immediate aftermath, McEnroe, who is also an announcer at the Open, was silent, although he will probably have plenty to say today during the men's matches. He was a phenomenal player and a great television analyst, but this one will call more for self analysis.
Comments (7)
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Serena Williams is a great player and will win more Grand Slam matches in the future.
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It was not a foot fault when her foot barely touched the line? Should a ball be called out when it barely misses the line then?
Serena is great, no doubt, but her foot was on the line. That's the breaks. She'll win plenty more before she's done.
Interesting... I really didn't think it was a foot fault, but on reading interviews w/Serena, even she thinks her foot was probably on the line.
Aside from the fact that Serena completely lost all control at a very crucial moment she still needs to accept responsibility for her actions. Just a plain simple act of humility or contriteness and we would have forgiven and moved on. However something that I have never understood in the last several years is why at the end of basketball games we think we should suspend the rules. For instance we teach these rules of good sportsmanship in school and than tend to dismiss the rules like traveling in basketball with the argument that big men can't conform to the rules of not walking when they come to a stop. The rules set up the parameters of the game so that the playing field remains unbiased and impartial. Bottom line play by the rules or get tossed.
A couple of things to consider here. It doesn't matter if it's the first point or the last point you call the line as best as you can. The mentality that it was match point and should have been ignored is just as ridiculas as saying that Clister's ball ,at match point, was just a little out but we should ignore it as the match was really over anyway! Keep in mind Serena already had another footfault called earlier and had broken a racquet. The main difference between Mac, Conners and Nasty was the personal THREAT by Serena. Sorry that blows it. Don't forget either that Mac was the first player defaulted from a match for his antics.
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