Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic are fast becoming the reality television stars of Australian sport. They are arrogantly conveying their unattractive personality traits in a cocky, vacuous and insufferably egotistical manner, while receiving more attention than their achievements deserve.
Chucking a sicky is common. We’ve all done it. Getting as full as a caterpillar’s sock drawer on a Sunday night before sheepishly calling the boss first thing Monday.
Dobbing a mate in for chucking a sickie is uncommon. It’s something most of us haven’t done. But, most of us aren’t Bernard Tomic.
Things got a bit tough for Tomic midway through a Davis Cup match last week so he dobbed in the absent Nick Kyrgios, alleging he wasn’t really sick at all.
Tomic’s performance helps to explain why he hasn’t yet won, and possibly won’t win, a tennis major – he’s neither good, or mentally strong enough.
He was hot, copping a beating and fell apart like a clown’s car, unable to wait until the match was over to start with the excuses.
Dobbing was weak. Tomic’s not a whistleblower of Julian Assange’s calibre, or a man of great integrity like David Pocock, standing up for something he believes in.
Never has he demonstrated any genuine pride in representing Australia. Unlike Lleyton Hewitt, both Kyrgios and Tomic have only ever treated the Davis Cup as a matter of convenience.
Does tennis attract or create these insufferably petulant twerps, Pat Rafter being the absolute exception to the rule?
I can think of no other sport where so many professional sportsmen are so unsportsmanlike.
Golf finishes a distant second and cricket third. Once the circus has concluded even boxers are prone to more spontaneous demonstrations of decency than their racquet wielding counterparts.
Is it tennis’ association with privilege and the sense of entitlement that often comes with that privilege? I’m sure there are more homes with tennis courts in Sydney’s Bellevue Hill than there are tennis courts in all of Rooty Hill.
If it’s the single-minded determination and insularity required to excel in an individual pursuit then why don’t the women tennis players behave with such gratuitous peevishness? Even Serena Williams is at least practising the art of pretending to be humble.
There’s an undeniable, accepted pattern of brash boorishness in tennis. Pete Sampras, a man with fourteen more grand slam singles titles than Tomic and Kyrgios combined, was criticised for being too boring and nice.
Familial involvement in the career of a tennis protégé has been much canvassed. Who goes to work with mummy and daddy everyday? Who is seriously equipped to coach their own children beyond junior levels? Who would want to?
Externally, it could appear that many tennis parents, dissatisfied with their own achievements in life are trying to live vicariously through their children – think underachieving parents shouting from the sidelines at any sport around the country – but ultimately are only succeeding in projecting their own failings on to them.
Can you imagine Wayne Bennett or Alastair Clarkson headbutting a player at training as Tomic’s father did? Okay, maybe Cranky Clarkson would, but you get my point.
The quote which best encapsulates the omnipresent and peculiar parental phenomenon in tennis came from Chris Evert-Lloyd – a woman who knows all about dickheads having been married to Greg Norman.
When asked which player’s parents she liked the most, the former champion responded, ‘Lindsay Davenport’s, because I’ve never met them.’
Apart from the fact parochial embarrassments The Fanatics make up most of their fan-base, Tomic and Kyrgios don’t have much to complain about. Healthy sponsorship ensures even mediocre players will earn more money in a short career than most of us will in a lifetime.
Tennis players even get silence to concentrate on what they are doing. The only time you get silence at a football match is on Anzac Day. If anyone needs silence while playing sport it’s not Nick Kyrgios, it’s the bloke needing to know that Luke Hodge is bearing down on him.
The spoilt brat, tennis player stereotype exists for many a reason. Whatever those reasons may be, the simple fact is the sport and its governing body condone it with weak punishments.
The sponsors don’t care and nor would it seem, do we, the fans. It’s sport and reality television rolled into one.
Like many before them, the tennis skills of Tomic and Kyrgios are overshadowed by their childlike behaviour, but at least only one of them is a dobber.
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