Alexander Zverev and Co.: Referee abuse is also a sign of great arrogance
The fact that tennis professionals attack the referees and insult them violently is not only wrong. It is also a sign of supreme arrogance. A comment.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
Feb 26, 2022, 10:14 am
Just imagine the following scene: Alexander Zverev misses a simple smash, in case of doubt one at 5: 5 in the tie-break of the decisive set.
At that moment, the referee scrambles out of his chair and yells at Zverev: "How can you beat him! How stupid can you be!? My grandma would have turned him, how can you not do him, man!!! Are you a tennis pro or what !? Finally do your job, you bloody idiot!"
Yeah, okay, of course that would never happen. But basically the same thing would have happened as a few days ago , just the other way around: Zverev would have made an "unforced error", an "unnecessary error". This is exactly what a referee does when he makes a wrong decision.
"It wasn't my day" can hardly be said by a referee
Tennis pros make mistakes all the time without needing to in the course of a match, far too many on bad days. "It wasn't my day today," one hears afterwards. That's what a referee should say... No, he is required to act flawlessly, sometimes for hours, every day. How arrogant can one be!
The difference is clear: a devious ball is your own mistake, as a tennis player, as an athlete, you like to have control in your own hands. And at best makes up for a dropout with a winner at the next point. If a referee looks aside, and the score is critical, the anger is understandably great. But there are limits. No referee will intentionally want to be wrong. Especially since he, see football, will be confronted with his mistakes for a long time, not only from the player side.
Put yourself in the other person's shoes for a moment, please...
Alexander Zverev's dropout was completely wrong in many respects. So far the fine is a joke. Above all, the human level is missing again, even if Zverev (or his management) published an apology text shortly afterwards. The ability to briefly put oneself in the other person's position is lacking.
So much so with more and more tournaments, on more and more courts, that Hawk-Eye is now providing clarity and, in particular, taking line judges out of the shots, a certain self-discipline is not too much to ask even for tennis professionals. Even if a momentary excitement in the heat of battle is only human. But: Mistakes made by others are exactly that, too.