Novak Djokovic fans issuing death threats to Arina Rodionova is most bizarre
Novak Djokovic's fans abusing and giving death threats to Arina Rodionova is just another testament to the unhealthy obsession of fans to the players.
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Novak Djokovic and Arina Rodionova
Tennis fans are a crazy lot. Sometimes, adulation and love borders on insanity, in the real sense. What one witnessed last week was indeed crazy where Russian-born Arina Rodionova, now an Australian citizen and a former player, received death threats for having criticized Novak Djokovic. The whole world knows when Novak got injured at the Australian Open and then went on to win his 22nd Grand Slam titles, equalling Rafael Nadal, he became the toast for one and all.
However, one seemingly stupid post by Arina was enough to turn the whole world against her. No doubt, what Arina did was click-bait stuff, since hardly anyone knows the 33-year-old, past prime player. Her post on social media read as follows: “Not sure why I am getting all the death threats from Novak’s fans. For some reason, people think I was joking about the injury. Tears in hamstrings is not a joking matter, people go to the hospitals with those, and can’t walk for days, you guys. Shame on you for turning this into a joke.”
This was the reaction from Arina after fans went berserk after she had joked about how the three-centimetre hamstring tear for Novak had become the butt of ridicule. There were many people skeptical about the injury to Novak even in January at the AO which had restricted his movement. As he progressed through the rounds, he hired a famous doctor who had also attended on CR7 — Cristiano Ronaldo — to get treated, Novak came into the final minus any strapping, which was unbelievable.
That was a big surprise, how he had conquered the pain barrier. Even his coach, Crazy Croat Goran Ivanisevic spoke about how Novak “was crazy” to compete and kept pushing himself. The rest is history. However, what set the cat among the pigeons and then turned serious was how Novak fans allegedly sent death threats to Arina. It was no joke, for fans can be weird, and do bizarre stuff.
Related: “Shame on you,” Arina Rodionova criticizes Novak Djokovic’s fans for giving death threats to her
The unhealthy obsession of tennis stars has never gone right and Novak Djokovic’s fans are another example
Novak had nothing to do with it, really. He has billions who worship him and the post from Arina was in poor taste. She even talked of his no-vaccine status and referred to anti-rabies vaccines. All that was muckraking, needless. The sense of outrage among fans was Titanic. To send death threats was no joke and must have traumatized Arina. Fans worshiping stars is nice, fans according to star status is also fine. When the fan turns love into hatred, that is danger.
One cannot ignore these kinds of threats, really. Tennis history is replete with instances where players have been victims of abuse, racial, physical, and verbal. All this has gone to show that fans are an intolerant lot, not knowing where to stop. In South India, worshipping film stars have such huge emotional overtones, that fans can even self-immolate. What triggers such extreme emotions is hard to comprehend, though for tennis fans to show a violent side is scary.
In the recent past, someone like Nick Kyrgios has talked of receiving death threats. It cannot be ignored, which is why the big tennis players have their own private security at most places they travel to. This generation may not know too much about the infamous incident when Monica Seles was stabbed on April 30, 1990 in Hamburg, Germany. A mad man called Gunter Parche, a totally obsessed Steffi Graf fan, stabbed Seles.
All because the Yugoslav-born player who then became an American citizen had risen to the top. Monica’s rise was phoenix like and when the nine-inch long knife was driven into her back during the changeover in a match, it was most chilling. To say that Monica Seles was traumatized would be mild. She had become a superstar in no time, she was the big challenger to Steffi Graf and the entire women’s tennis fraternity.
Her style of play may have been ugly and hard, accompanied by very loud grunting, but there was no reason to hate her. She had won nine Grand Slam titles in all, but the way Gunter Parche planned the assault on her with a kitchen knife, used to cut meat, was bone chilling. One is talking about this 33 years hence, since there is still no method in madness. For weeks and months, after the stabbing, Monica could not lift her arm.
If physical trauma was one thing, mentally she was haunted. To return to the tennis courts was so hard, yet she still did it. These days when famous stars like Naomi Osaka talk of mental health issues, Monica Seles coming back was phenomenal. The point is, she was stabbed for no fault of hers. She had not taunted Steffi Graf, other than competing hard with her. Had Monica not been stabbed, she could have gone on to win many more titles.
After her traumatic stabbing she came back in 1995 and won the Australian Open in 1996. Yet, her consistency was missing. There is no comparing Monica with Arina in any sense but fans must realize tennis is a sport where “Love All” is the most apt phrase. In an era where social media drives so much of love and hatred, in equal measure, any attempt at showing a crazy following for Novak and using death threats needs to be condemned.
There is no way there can be intolerance in sport. Last December, when German star Boris Becker was released from jail in Britain, he came out and talked about hard lessons he had learnt. Agreed, Boris was seen as arrogant, yet when he went to jail on tax evasion issues, he was brought down to earth with a thud. Boris was broke and had to serve a jail term.
Boris Becker said in an interview to a German broadcaster many things after his release. “I was immediately confronted with a reality that I had no experience with (in jail in Britain. It was dangerous. I tried not to look anyone in the eye and stay in my corner,” said Becker. “Wandsworth is really big, really dirty, extremely dangerous, there are murderers, pedophiles, drug dealers, you meet everyone. It’s about surviving. You go out of your cell and you need to save your skin, the guards won’t do it for you.”
Becker spoke about how he had gotten into an argument with a jail inmate and dealing with it was not easy. The hardened background of the criminal who engaged with Boris was that of a murderer. The German, who now says he has learnt a lot of lessons, said: “In prison you are a nobody. You are only a number. Mine was A2923EV. I wasn’t called Boris, I was a number. And nobody gives a s*** who you are.”
For someone who abused the institution of marriage, Boris Becker has faced massive criticism. It is only when he learnt to save himself in prison did he realize there is so much more to life than three Grand Slam titles and the exalted status he once enjoyed. Karma? Maybe.
Back to Novak fans, they need to be tolerant. Do not sully the image of the sport, do not talk of death threats. Someone having a dig on social media at your hero cannot become an object of hatred. If Arina Rodionova is stupid, ignore her. That is enough.
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S Kannan
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