Roger Federer sells glasses and Rafael Nadal builds hotels. And that’s fine, they’ve earned the right to do whatever they want once their professional tennis careers are over. The problem is that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner only play tennis; they don’t want to (nor can they) act as leaders and role models in tennis. And so we have what we’ve seen in recent weeks: an explosion of scandals and public fights, both on the men’s and women’s circuits.
Yes, at the age of Alcaraz and Sinner, the Swiss player was smashing rackets and was not exactly a positive leader on the tour. But that changed, and for almost 15 years, Federer and Nadal led an era of ‘peace and love’ in tennis. If they exchanged all kinds of compliments and beautiful phrases despite competing for the throne of history, what right did those on the second and third tiers have to mistreat each other, to behave badly, to cause scandals in the stadiums?
The question became obsolete. Federer sells glasses, Nadal builds hotels, and outbursts are multiplying at different tournaments and stadiums. From Stefanos Tsitsipas taking offence at Daniel Altmaier for an underarm serve, to Jelena Ostapenko being accused of racism, without much sense, after her beef with Taylor Townsend. From Frenchman Hugo Grenier shouting insults at Argentine Federico Gómez, to Medvedev showing the worst of himself.
Tempers are running high and inhibitions have fallen away. If a powerful president receives the president of a country at war in his office and publicly mistreats and ridicules him, why should the rest of us mortals keep up appearances? Why not act on the spot according to our deepest rage or anger?
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Had he been in New York, Federer might have had words of comfort and support for his compatriot Leandro Riedi, ranked 453rd in the world.
Riedi, 23, who came through qualifying, asked the chair umpire to eject a man from the stadium who kept talking to him between points in his second-round match.
‘He’s just betting on me,’ Riedi said to chair umpire Scotty Moore, as described by Ben Rothenberg in his blog “Bounces”.
‘And now, if I lose, he will text me. He’s one of those guys. Get him off. I don’t want to see this guy. If I lose, he’s texting me: “You’re so bad, I hope your mother dies.”’
What is happening to tennis?
Alcaraz, who at 22 just wants to win as many tournaments as possible to be in contention for the title of greatest of all time, has a theory.
‘It’s a stressful Grand Slam. In the end, it depends on the person. I’m a calm person who prefers not to have a lot of people around, and in the end, in New York, there are a lot of people, a lot of traffic, everything goes at double speed, and that can stress you out a bit.’
However, this is not a phenomenon that only occurs in New York. At Roland Garros, the growing lack of control among fans led the tournament to ban the sale of alcohol in 2024.
‘After the Covid pandemic, we saw a change in people’s behaviour in terms of atmosphere,’ said Amelie Mauresmo, director of the French Open.
Stories like this occur at tournaments large and small and in almost any country or city. There is a new pattern of behaviour that is not unrelated to social media addiction: you have to be increasingly flashy, eccentric and aggressive to stand out on social media. And we all know that, for many people, nothing is more important than having a few minutes of fame. Doing whatever it takes, the important thing is fame.
Novak Djokovic, who has so often been labelled the ‘bad boy’ of the dominant trio in tennis, is nevertheless in a different league: he has more than enough tennis skills and a good attitude to make up for some situations in which he earned the boos of the stands and the antipathy of some rivals. With his experience and authority, he could be the leader of the tour, but he no longer wants to be. Neither Alcaraz nor Sinner know how to fulfil that role, let alone the powers that be in tennis, embroiled in their eternal battles.
Thus, in the midst of anarchy, tension grows and eruptions become increasingly violent. This is true in tennis as it is in real life.
