Top 5 Controversies In Tennis In The Past Year

Each sport has its highs and lows, tennis is no different. In the past year the world of tennis has seen its fair share of controversies erupting both on and off the court. Here are few of those heated incidents that took place recently:

The Australian was fined $10,000 and banned for 28 days by the ATP after his sledging of Stan Wawrinka at the 2015 Rogers Cup in Montreal. Kyrgios made crude remarks involving his native friend Thanasi Kokkinakis and Stan’s girlfriend Donna Vekic.

The highly insulting remark went unnoticed by Wawrinka on the court who even gave a friendly shake at the net after retiring from the match. But the sledge was caught by the microphone and Wawrinka later confronted Kyrgios in the locker room in addition to the tweets.

“It’s not the first time that he has big problems on the court in terms of what he says and in terms of how he acts,” Wawrinka said later on, in light of several violations of the code of conduct in the past by Kyrgios.

When Rafael Nadal and Fabio Fognini were to meet in the finals of Hamburg Open, fireworks were sure to take place. In anticipation of an epic clash between the two, the spectators and fans encountered an ugly spat instead.

In one of the changeovers in the second set, the controversy king Fognini appeared to rant at Nadal for a reason that cannot be confirmed entirely. Reportedly, Fognini was indignant about Nadal slowing down his pace during  service games. After Fognini did not stop his display of anger, Nadal too shot back and pointed at him to sit back in his place. The incident occurred immediately after Fognini broke Rafa to take the lead 5-4.

In response, Nadal won all the games to seal the match 7-5 7-5. It was followed by a very cold handshake at the net. Fognini later took revenge by winning the US Open match against Rafa coming from two sets down.

When Nick Kyrgios announced that he would be making an appearance at the 2016 Indian Wells Masters, it resulted in a fallout with fellow Australian player and Davis Cup teammate, Bernard Tomic.

Kyrgios’ participation at Indian Wells came as a blow to the Australian team. This was because an injured Tomic had to play a Davis Cup match in place of Kyrgios, who had pulled out due to medical issues. Since Indian Wells was only a week apart from the illness, Tomic was miffed with Kyrgios’ conduct and went on to state that ‘If he plays Indian Wells, then he’s definitely lost a little bit of my respect’.

Maria Sharapova took the world by storm when she announced that she was tested positive for meldonium, a drug she had been taking for the past 10 years. Meldonium had been ruled as a performance enhancing drug and hence been banned by WADA.

The richest female athlete in the world has since been suspended. The revelation came at a high cost as the Russian lost major contracts from her endorsements such as Tag Heuer and Nike. Even Porsche has postponed all its future endeavors with the star and UN has removed her as one of its ambassadors.

Recently, Raymond Moore who was the chairman of the BNP Paribas Open, also known as the Indian Wells Masters, stepped down after he created a stir just before the Women’s singles final. The statements he made about women’s tennis were an absolute shocker and he received a lot of flak and criticism from top athletes.

“They ride on the coattails of the men. They don’t make any decisions and they are lucky. They are very, very lucky. If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank god that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport” said Moore.

To make matters worse, the 69-year-old South African also marked Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and Spaniard Garbine Muguruza as being among the “very attractive prospects” on the WTA circuit, before explaining that they were “physically attractive and competitively attractive”.

After bowing out of the finals in the same event, Serena Williams rebuked the sexist comments of Raymond. “If I could tell you every day how many people say they don’t watch tennis unless they’re watching myself or my sister — I couldn’t even bring up that number. We, as women, have come a long way. We shouldn’t have to drop to our knees at any point.” The winner at the Indian wells, Victoria Azarenka said, “I think it’s our duty to keep just working hard through whatever comments there is. We’ve got to rise above that.

Former tennis legend Billie Jean King also tweeted, ‘’Disappointed in #RaymondMoore comments. He is wrong on so many levels. Every player, especially the top players, contribute to our success.’’

Despite Moore issuing a public apology for his comments, it was too late for damage control.

The matter was fuelled further when Novak Djokovic dropped hints at the approval of different paychecks, which didn’t go down well with the rest of the circuit. He received heavy backlash from fellow players including Andy Murray and Serena Williams. Djokovic was quick to clarify his earlier comments and issued an apology as well.