Everyone has long known that tennis is a very dynamic sport. But his dynamics are expressed not only on the court during the match, but also outside it. In this article, we will talk about the most interesting scandals that occurred both at the next tournament match, and about those situations that we know about thanks to the stories of contemporaries.
Jennifer Capriati: Rise and fall and once again in a circle.
It’s not even a scandal that opens our list, but one of the main scandalous biographies of tennis. At the age of 13, Jennifer Capriati not only declared herself as an athlete with a great future, but also managed to prove it. She shocked the tennis community. “Golden girl” – that’s how the media wrote about the new talent. Even aussie online casinos real money today offers slots on the theme of tennis, where the main character is the prototype of this athlete.
In 1989, she won the junior Roland Garros and the US Open. Recall that she was only 13 years old. After such success, the girl was already secured for many years: companies signed contracts with her. According to various sources, their amount was about $ 5 million. She was able to change the rules of the WTA. It was possible to make their debut in adult tennis only from the age of 14, but the women’s tennis Association made concessions and allowed Jennifer and all young tennis players to play at the first professional tournament in the month when they turn 14. Later, this amendment was called the “Capriati rule”.
But in 1993, Jennifer took a break from her career. No one understood why she decided to do this, but the subsequent news set the record straight. Once she went into a jewelry store, Jennifer tried on jewelry, and then just left and did not pay for them. She explained this by saying that she did not want to steal anything, and she simply forgot to take off her jewelry. Surprisingly, this was enough to avoid bringing a criminal case against her. The last straw in undermining her reputation was the drug story. A classic plot for celebrities.
By the way, after these incidents, WTP changed the rules again, prohibiting players under the age of 18 from participating in adult tournaments. They justified this by saying that they do not need players with lightning-fast careers that will soon turn into a disaster. Her story didn’t end there. After a year and a half, she returns to the big sport.
At first, no one believed in her, but she was able to prove that all was not lost and won the Grand Slam tournament 3 times and even took the title of the first racket of the world. I would like to end on a positive note, but the title of this story does not allow this to be done.
In 2010, the athlete was hospitalized. The media started writing about her drug addiction again. After that, she finally stopped playing sports.
Serena Williams: The biggest controversy
Serena Williams is an outstanding athlete who has won a huge number of tournaments during her career. But she is famous not only for her playing technique, but also for her excessive emotionality. Serena often showed her fiery temper and even threatened the referee to shove the ball down his throat.
The story that allowed the coaches to prompt the players took place in 2018. Then, at the Grand Slam tournament in the final, Williams met with a young 20-year-old tennis player Naomi Osaka. The match was very intense because Serena was fighting for a record 24th Slam, and for Naomi it was the first serious tournament. Everyone was betting on the victory of the record holder, but the reverse course of events was given by judge Carlos Ramos.
At the beginning, he warned the American woman for the tips from the coach, after which she approached him and began to prove that Patrick Muratoglu, her coach, was just giving her the thumbs up as a sign of praise. In the second set, unable to cope with her emotions, she smashed her racket, for which Ramos had already made a point penalty. Serena noticed the penalty only after the start of the sixth game and went to deal with the referee again. This time she expected an apology from him and called him a thief for “stealing a point.”
The referee issued a third warning for insulting himself, which resulted in a game penalty. Then the athlete began to prove to him that this was sexism, because when men behave like that, he does not write them a fine. In the end, Serena lost this meeting. But then it was only more interesting.
During the award ceremony, the audience began to boo Naomi for winning this tournament. The American managed to calm the public, but further proceedings on social networks overshadowed Naomi’s victory. Many athletes supported Serena. This was also done by John McEnroe, who said that he said more cruel things to the judge and was not fined. But, of course, there were those who remained on the judge’s side. They said there was no sexism in it and Carlos was just following the rules.
This story would have remained within the tennis world had it not been for the Australian artist Mark Knight, who made a caricature of this final. It shows Serena Williams jumping on her racket, a pacifier next to her, and in the background we see the judge who says to Naomi: “Maybe you’ll just let her win?After that, the artist was attacked not only by Serena’s fans, but also by media personalities: many NBA players, Formula 1 racer Lewis Hamilton, singer Nicki Minaj. They all accused Mark of racism. Due to the large number of insults and even threats against himself, the artist had to leave all social networks. Serena Williams ended her career in 2022 without winning a record 24 Grand Slam cups.
Novak Djokovic: Tennis against coronavirus
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian tennis player, the first racket of the world. He is considered one of the best tennis players in history. In 2020, when the coronavirus was in full swing, he decided to ignore the worldwide panic, pandemic, quarantine and organized his own Adria Tour tournament.
All tickets were sold out in 1 day. Djokovic personally met all the athletes at the airport, hugged them, and hosted parties in restaurants in honor of the start of the tournament. Everything was fine until the moment when the first infected person appeared. They were the tennis players who took part in this tournament, the audience and Djokovic himself.
In the social network.the networks began to accuse him, so he made a speech in which he said that the tournament was allegedly organized at the time of the decline of the virus, but, as it turned out, this decline did not happen at all. Many colleagues also accused him of being the chairman of the ATP Players’ Council and being an authority for other tennis players, he makes decisions so irresponsibly. In the end, this story moved away from the athlete, but still left its mark on his career.
