“What’s happening in tennis? Things are getting wild” – Tennis Twitter contemplates the sport’s future after Mikael Ymer’s brain fade incident amid rising on-court rage in players
Mikael Ymer's violent outburst has fans worried about future of tennis
Image Credit: Mikael Ymer (Tennis TV)
Mikael Ymer‘s disqualification at the Lyon Open after a fit of rage toward the chair umpire is all the Tennis world could talk about. Ymer violently broke his racket on the umpire’s chair after an argument over a contentious point. Ymer was playing against French player Arthur Fils in the round of 16 of the Lyon Open. The 24-year-old Swedish player was immediately disqualified from the match and the tournament following his actions.
A return by Fils was called IN, and Mikael Ymer asked the chair umpire to check the marking. Though Ymer believed the point from Fils landed OUT, he had already played a return. Now when his return had landed OUT, Ymer brought up the previous shot’s decision to the chair umpire. He challenged him to come down to show the mark where the ball landed. The umpire refused to get down from the chair and that enraged the Swedish.
Within the next few minutes, Ymer lost his service game. Ultimately he took out his frustration with the umpire by smashing his racket very violently on the umpire’s chair.
With the incident coming to the fore, several debates have been initiated by tennis lovers on Twitter. Several people believe the chair umpire should have come down to check the point when Mikael Ymer demanded him to do so.
Whereas many fans were convinced the umpire was correct not to come down and stuck to the rule book. They felt Ymer was a little late to demand the checking of the point. But everyone unanimously agree that Ymer’s reaction was highly inappropriate. All tennis fans unanimously agreed to the decision for him to be disqualified.
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Incidents of violence on courts are making tennis fans suspicious of the future of tennis
Recently Marton Fucsovics’ rant about the younger players using a lot of explicit language became a piece of big news. Though the Hungarian later apologized, fans agreed that such language has no place in tennis. The incident of Mikael Ymer reminded fans of the time when Alexander Zverev broke his racket near the chair umpire’s leg at Acapulco last year. Tennis fans are perplexed and sad as acts of physical violence are increasing on the court. What does the future hold for tennis?
As far as this incident is concerned, many tennis experts took out their handbook of rules and started debating based on what the rules are. The general consent was that Ymer’s request to check the point actually came very late and hence it was correct for the umpire not to come down.
But there was a section of fans who felt the umpire could have come down from his chair and enabled the player’s demands. There are some inconsistencies in how umpires behave on court. While some umpire spring off their chairs every few points. Others believe in sticking to the rule book and do as it says.
This incident has brought a lot of issues to the fore. Inconsistencies in umpiring are one of them, but the biggest is such passionate displays of anger on courts. More and more of such unacceptable behaviors just go to show how competitive and stressful this sport has become. Each point played is absolutely crucial and players don’t want to let go of the smallest of chances to win. The fans hope to see more sport and less drama on the court, for the love of tennis.
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Deeksha Nigam
(173 Articles Published)