Sketchy things professional tennis wants you to forget
People love sports because it's fun to get excited about the best athletes in the world while sitting on your couch. The tribalism involved makes us feel good when our favorite team or player wins. And while the game itself is fun to watch, it's the crazy drama that's happening around it that's really exciting. Tennis is no exception when it comes to things that put sport in disrepute, the things that people involved would probably rather have you forgotten.
Whether it's terrible decisions by umpires, or players fail drug tests, or match-fixing allegations, tennis has many of the same problems as other sports. But then you have things like mysterious poisonings, violent explosions, and the disturbing preferences of one of his greats of all time who takes tennis at his own ridiculous level. There is so much more to be enjoyed than just watching some people hit a ball back and forth.
1 The never-ending policing of women's tennis outfits
In 2018, Serena Williams stepped out on the court at the French Open wearing an awesome catsuit. Not only did it look fabulous, it actually had a medical use, according to the cut: Ever since giving birth to the year before. But shortly after that, French Tennis Federation President Bernard Giudicelli announced the French Open would suddenly have a dress code. The only outfit he mentioned was Serena's issue. Billie Jean King speaking out against the unfairness Andy Roddick calling the decision "dumb."
But this was far from the only time women's tennis outfits have been policed. The Independent reports that in 1949, Gussie Moran played at Wimbledon wearing a short skirt that showed her underwear. While this is the standard look for female players today, it's completely shocked at the tennis world. She was accused of bringing "vulgarity and sin" into the game, and the issue was even debated in Parliament.
Then in 1958, Karol Fageros wore gold lame underwear to the French Open and was banned from playing at Wimbledon because of it. In 1985, Anne White wrote a book about Williams', and it was found to be unfit for competition by Wimbledon officials. They were not happy with the jacket covered in tennis balls that Bethanie Mattek-Sands wore onto the court in 2011, giving her an official warning.
2 Alizé Cornet removed his shirt for a split second
During the 2018 US Open, Alizé Cornet returned from a break in the game and realized that she had put her shirt back. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, she approached the back of the court and quickly removed it and put it on the right track. Under her shirt, she was, of course, wearing a very thick sports bra. Despite this, she was given a violation of the code by the Umpire, assuming she was showing off her body for no reason as a kind of cowardly woman.
The world, thankfully, realized that it was ridiculously sexist. Male tennis players celebrate taking off their shirts all the time, strolling around between sets with their six-packs out for everyone to admire. They take off their shirts to cool off, or to take less sweat on those. This is a normal part of their game. But a woman has shown skin for three seconds and suddenly the umpire wants everyone to think of children or something.
Twitter was full of side-by-side comparisons of horn and topless male gamblers, showing hypocrisy. The Women's Tennis Association called the decision "unfair," while two-time US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka said it was "ridiculous." a writer for the Chicago Tribune said he was comparable to someone being offended by public breastfeeding.
The US Open has been quick to clarify its rules, saying Cornet should not have been penalized. Technically, she should have waited to change her shirt during a break, but other than that, she had done nothing wrong.
3 Andre Agassi used meth and got away with it
Nowadays, taking drugs in sports is a huge deal. The World Anti-Doping Agency was founded in 1999, and since then has kept sports clean almost a religion. But before that, it was easier to get away with taking a prohibited substance. Exhibit A: Andre Agassi.
According to ESPN, in 1997, during a plunge in his career, Agassi failed a drug test. He wrote a letter to the Tennis Professionals Association saying he was very sorry, but it was not his fault. He had an assistant who was in Crystal Meth, and Agassi accidentally drank one of his doped sodas before he was tested! He asked them to pretty please forgive him, and surprisingly, they did. ATP took Agassi to his word, the positive test was cast, and he suffered no consequences.
So, it was probably seriously annoying for ATP to read in the 2009 autobiography Agassi that the whole letter had been a lie. Well, the little of a meth-use wizard was true-he got Agassi in it. The first time that Agassi snorted meth he said he immediately regretted it, but that was quickly replaced by a "tidal wave of euphoria" and a desperate desire to clean his house.
Agassi also said he had "never felt such energy," which could explain why the year he first used, he rose from No. 141 in the Top 10 ranking, the biggest jump in a year in the history of tennis. But do not drugs, children.
4 Daniel Koellerer was involved in the match-fixing
Daniel Koellerer was quick to make a name for himself in tennis. Unfortunately, this name was "Crazy Dani." Known for his explosions on the court, according to tennis.com, in both 2004 and 2006 he was given a fine and a ban on bad behavior while playing. In 2010, he was so verbally abusive to Stefan Koubek in a match that Koubek choked. Despite being the one who was attacked, it was Koellerer who was booed as he left the court.
So it's not surprising that a guy like that can also be to other bad things. In 2010, Koellerer got two years of probation to "facilitate the Paris" on tennis. He was not even subtle about it; He listed the odds for matches on his personal website and usefully included links for people to sites where they could place bets.
Then, in a completely separate investigation, but virtually simultaneous, it was discovered Koellerer was involved in fixing the match. The unit of tennis integrity found him guilty of "fixing two matches involving other players and a match of his own" in 2011. That was enough to make him slap with a $ 100,000 fine as well as a ban on sport life. It was the first time that such extreme punishment had been pronounced for this offense.
Koellerer, for its part, totally denied the charges. He called them a "giant shock" and said the charges were "total nonsense."
5 Maria Sharapova used a performance enhancing medicine
In 2016, Maria Sharapova was banned from playing tennis for 15 months. It was a serious punishment; she missed the Olympics and seven grand slams. But she had been captured using a recently banned performance-enhancing drug and the whole situation was more than a little dubious.
Sharapova had already used meldonium for ten years when it was added to the list of banned substances, according to the Guardian. The World Anti-Doping Agency suddenly frowned on it because they said it improves performance by carrying more oxygen to the muscle tissue. But Sharapova claimed his use was totally innocent: that his doctor had prescribed him because of a family history of diabetes and an irregular heartbeat. (These questions must be a real problem for Russian athletes because "scores" of them tested positive for meldonium in 2016.)
His claims were undermined by e-mails from his doctor telling him his dosage before key matches. Then there was the fact that she hid her use not only from WADA but from her own support staff. And saying that she had no idea the drug had been banned seemed ridiculous, since athletes obsessively check lists. Players like Andy Murray and Eugénie Bouchard have openly criticized it.
And the proof is that the drug has probably helped a lot. In the months after her ban came to an end, she played almost comically wrong, only making it to a quarterfinal in the Grand Slam events, usually crashing much earlier.
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6 Tennis fathers are crazy
Stage mothers are notoriously horrible, but tennis fathers could give them a run for their money. According to the launderer's report, fathers of famous players can take things far too far. Walter Bartoli was so passionate about the success of his daughter Marion that he gave up a career as a doctor to train him. She had to stop playing at Wimbledon to ask her to leave the stadium. But some fathers have been much worse.
Stefano Capriati "dragged" his daughter Jennifer into professional tennis when she was only 13 years old. He gained a reputation as "Bully" who saw his poor kid as "an ATM ponytail." Stefano was so bad that he lost Jennifer a place on the Fed Cup team in 2002 because of his conduct. Then there was John Tomic, Bernard's father, who was charged with assault when he got angry with his son's partner. John took his frustration by headbutting the guy in the face, knocking him unconscious and smashing his nose.
Jelena Dokic's father, Damir, has accused the Australian Open of setting the draw, was ejected from the United States open to complain about the salmon prize, and also thrown out of Wimbledon to break the camera. 'a journalist. In the non-tennis-related madness, he said he would kill himself if Jelena went out as a lesbian and went to jail for threatening to assassinate an ambassador.
Finally, there is Jim Pierce who has been so abusive in watching his daughter Mary play that he has been officially banned from attending all WTA tournaments.
7 Serena Williams was penalized for upsetting
The women's final of the 2018 American Open between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka has promised to be a great match. Instead, he went down in a joke.
According to VOX, First Williams has received a violation of Umpire Carlos Ramos' code for allegedly receiving coaching, something that is not allowed during reading. Williams vehemently denied. Later, she broke her racket in frustration, drawing an official penalty. For this, Williams called the official a thief. She continued to abuse later, saying that he was a liar, which resulted in an even greater penalty. By the time she was beaten by Osaka, Williams was in tears. She was fined $ 17,000 for her actions.
The world has gone mad. The Umpire has attracted accusations of sexism and racism. Male players throw adjustments all the time without penalties, something pointed out by many people, including male tennis players. John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors made a career shouting to referees. And Ramos had taken more abuse from Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Rafael Nadal in recent matches, but not penalized for that.
In return, the referees threatened to boycott Williams' matches until she apologized to Ramos. And everyone became even more furious when an Australian newspaper published a cartoon that was clearly racist, showing Williams with exaggerated features, throwing a crisis. He was no longer the proof that Williams became the goat despite ridiculous prejudices.
8 Mysterious illness of Gabriella Taylor
Eighteen-year-old Gabriella Taylor had to stop playing midway through her quarterfinal match in the girl's tournament at Wimbledon in 2016, when she realized she felt absolutely terrible. She was rushed to the hospital where her mother says she almost died, as reported in the Telegraph.
Taylor was in intensive care for four days, when doctors finally figured out she had come down with a rare strain of leptospirosis. This was extremely suspicious. Transmitted through rat urine, the disease is very uncommon in the U.K., only infecting about 40 people a year. So questions were immediately raised about whether this might have been done intentionally to knock Taylor out of the tournament.
Her mother said it "could not have been an accident" and that it was pretty much "impossible" for her daughter to get sick accidentally when she was so careful about what she put in her body. While medical experts said it was "far-fetched" that a would-be poisoner would choose such a weird way to do it, the police still got involved, taking away water bottles that Taylor drank from. They looked into the possibility that an organized crime betting syndicate might have been involved, or if it was a "malicious plot" by a rival player. It might sound crazy, but apparently the junior circuit really is that competitive.
It's not clear what conclusion the investigation came to, but no one seems to have been arrested, so the potential crafty rat urine poisoner could still be on the loose.
9 Monica Seles was stabbed by a nutcase
Just like any famous people, tennis players have crazy fans. And while that might be one of them, they probably think they're safe. But history has shown that this is not so amazing.
According to Yahoo Sports, in 1993, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf were in the middle of a bitter rivalry and Seles had just knocked out Graf out of the No. 1 spot. But Graf had an obsessed fan, an unemployed 38-year-old named Gunter Parche, and he's the best way to end the rivalry and get Graf on top of the leaderboard again was to eliminate Seles.
So during the Citizen Cup, a very minor event in Germany, Parche made his move. Seles was sitting down between sets, toweling off and having a sip of water, when she felt "horrible bread." Parche had just stabbed her in the back with a 9-inch knife. She turned to look at him and saw him on his face again. Then security and spectators realized what was happening and tackled him. Amazingly, the knife did not do any real damage. While Seles healed physically pretty quickly, she would not return to tennis for two years. It did not help her mental state that Parche did not even end up doing any jail time.
And professional tennis still has not learned their security lesson. In 2009, Roger Federer on the court at the French Open.
10 Bill Tilden's messed up personal life
You probably did not hear of Bill Tilden, but with his sporting achievements, he had to hear Babe Ruth. The Weekly Standard says he completely changed the nature of tennis. In 1950, he was voted the best tennis player of the first half of the 20th century, and one famous sportswriter once called "the greatest athlete in any sport."
So why is not he famous? Well, professional tennis might want to keep you calm about your personal life. Tilden was gay, which was obviously an issue at the time but would not be in the slightest. The real issue is that he likes them young, illegally young.
His predilections were well known. A rival player said how Tilden was always "soliciting little boys." And one journalist only let him give his tennis lessons after he "promised to keep his hands off the boy."
Then in 1946, long after Tilden had stopped playing, it was copying him for zigzagging all over the road. He found Tilden with his arm around a 14-year-old boy and the buttons on the kid's fly undone. He was convicted of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" and got nine months in jail plus five years' probation.
Tilden did not learn his lesson. Not even three years later, this time for sex with a minor boy. He spent a year in jail, and his reputation never recovered.
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