‘This Is Just Horrible’- Martina Navratilova Expresses Disappointment After Tennis Player Replicates the Appalling Will Smith Incident

Martina Navratilova is undeniably one of the greatest athletes in the history of tennis. Turning pro in 1974, Navratilova gave her all to make a mark in what is regarded as the toughest era of women’s tennis. 32 years later, retiring in 2006 with a number of records to her name, Navratilova had a gracious career to look back to.

However, recently, the legendary player felt a sense of disappointment seeing a video of a budding player. The video was from the ITF Junior Tournament in Ghana. In the video, the top-seeded player of the tournament was seen slapping his opponent after suffering a first-round loss to him. Seeing the video, Navratilova took to her Twitter, expressing her disappointment.

Martina Navratilova on budding players getting into a brawl

Seeing the video, Martina Navratilova reacted by posting a tweet. In the tweet, the champion player showed her disappointment, criticizing the player for his actions. Taking to her Twitter, she wrote, “Yikes. This is just horrible!!! And not acceptable…”

Even though Navratilova expressed her disapproval through her tweet, that didn’t leave her completely satisfied. Going a step further, she commented on the video, appealing for an immediate suspension of the player. She wrote, “He needs a big suspension, to say the least.”

Tennis is largely regarded as a royal game. Having its history dating back to the 1800s, tennis has always been high on sportsmanship. However, in the past few years, the sport has taken a different turn. On-court arguments, post-match banter, verbal abuse, and racquet breakage have become common sites in the sport. All this put together has largely affected the image of the game.

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The incident quite evidently reminded the tennis community about the Will Smith incident at the Oscars.

Revisiting Will Smith’s slap at the Oscars

Will Smith has been in light ever since the release of the movie King Richard. In the movie, Smith played the role of the father and coach of Venus and Serena Williams, Richard Williams. Since the release of the film, the 53-year-old has been receiving public as well as critical acclaim for his acting.

Having given one of his best performances to date, Smith has been a recipient of six Best Actor Awards. Out of the six, one award came in at the prestigious Academy Awards. However, even though Smith won the award, his night surely wasn’t a pleasant one.

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It was comedian Chris Rock performing on the stage of the Oscars. Having a light-hearted moment, the 57-year-old indulged in light leg-pulling of a number of attendees at the Award night. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the performance. However, things turned ugly when Chris Rock took a light-hearted dig at Will Smith’s wife, Jada Smith.

Not being able to withstand Chris’s dig at Jada, Smith, who was earlier enjoying the performance, went straight up to Chris and slapped him on stage. However, he wasn’t done yet. Coming back to the seat, Smith indulged in a verbal spat with Rock.

Even though the angry outburst of Smith came as a shocker for everyone, soon during his Best Actor speech, he apologized for his actions. Going further, he also issued a public apology on his social media handle.

Behavior like this, on-court or off-court, is unacceptable in all forms. Taking it into the record, the Academy Award has ordered an inquiry into the Will Smith incident. On the other hand, ATP has also prompted its players to take strict actions against them in case of such violence.