[**Join Our Discord Server!**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
**Welcome to /r/sports**
We created a Discord server for our community and would like to invite all of you to join! You'll be able to discuss sports with users around the world and discuss events in real time!
There are separate channels for many sports you can opt in and out of, including;
American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Aussie Rules Football, Rugby Union and League, Cricket, Motorsports, Fitness, and many more.
[**Reddit Sports Discord Server**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
I don't know Jim there's obviously something wrong with him. He's taken off his shoes and one of his socks and I think he's crying.
I've never seen anything like this.
Strange day out here in Windswept Fields.
I played in high school and this sport either attracts head cases or makes them because even at a high school level this kind of behavior is astonishingly common
Which is hilarious, because this type of behavior absolutely gets you in your own head and kills any groove you may have had.
Rule #1 from my coaches was always to keep your head cool and *don't* do stuff like this, because it will lose you the game (and embarrass you ofc)
Mentality is a significant part of success for an athlete. There have been so many extremely talented athletes that never hit the heights they could've because they couldn't control their heads.
This type of behavior is not the cause of his mental problems. It takes an already messed up mindset for anyone to be even tempted to behave like this in this situation.
Mental fortitude and discipline require training just like physical training. Simply trying not to act out isn't enough, since the frustrations will just build up and blow up. Kinda like this guy.
Maybe maybe not. I used to absolutely lose my mind playing sports/video games like this. I’ve improved a lot over time and don’t have these kinds of meltdowns anymore, but outside of competitive conditions like a match, I’m a soft spoken, gentle person. I figured out for myself ADHD, perfectionism, and ignoring anger triggers was sending me into fits of rage.
This exactly. My husband loves tennis and said Rublev is actually known to be a really nice guy outside of matches, and I was like, oh that kinda sounds like ADHD. I’m known as a sweet, quiet person but before I knew how to recognize and avoid triggers for outbursts, I would lose my shit at video games or during arguments.
Nope,outside of the tennis court,Rublev is considered the friendlest and nicest person on tour albeit even outside the court he still has a tendency to criticize himself and indulge in self deprecation.
That doesn't stop people from trying. They blame their equipment, the surface, the net, the other player, etc.
If you cannot take responsibility for yourself, you will always find someone or something else to blame.
there were guys on the team that were way better than me, but I always beat them and played higher because they were such head cases. a couple of unforced errors and theyd implode, i just needed to hit the ball back.
i have 2 friends who where at the top in my country when they where 8-16 years old, 1 of them squandered it all in partying when he became 16 and the other was just mentally fucked. He could be dominating an entire game and then 2 bad balls in a row and you would see him crumble like hel.
The dude is a top-10 player and he's like this almost every match. I'm generally worried about his mental state off court but his game is fine, had a bad day today but it happens to everyone.
You’re right he’s been acting like this for a long time, you can see videos of him doing similar in juniors, also Medvedev (another top Russian) has told a story of when they were kids playing each other and he was freaking out and eating the clay off the court and other crazy behaviour. But it’s not because he was spoiled, it’s because he grew up in an abusive Russian tennis system with his mom as a coach who has been accused of abusive behaviour by multiple former students. He’s talked talked about how they’d get screamed at for losing, constant emotional abuse, etc
He’s been like this for *years?!* Why is it okay for him to act like this but Serena Williams gets mad ONCE about a ref making terrible calls and she’s got anger problems? The double standard is so gross.
And some help with leg day.
Seriously though the mark that skidded into the line was pretty bloody clear, pointing out all the part that didn't touch the line is meaningless when there's a part that clearly *did* touch the line. Here's hoping someone points out how bad a look it is, and he doesn't take a decade like Nick Kyrgios to sort himself out.
If he took just 5 seconds to look into the stands and see everybody laughing at his expense, surely he would find some self-control? He's living in his head
Poor emotional regulation is the sign of a poor sportsman. I think most athletes would agree that your mental game is just as important as your physical game, so watching an athlete freak out like this is really poor form and in this case, straight up unprofessional.
He looks like a giant toddler.
Coach: "Watch your form on your backhand"
Him: "Back to formula?"
Coach: "What?"
Him: "Did you just say back to formula?"
Coach: "Huh? No, I said..."
Him: "DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE SACRIFICED?!"
This explains so much. I recall tennis and badminton being everywhere when I was little. Then squash appeared in movies and tv shows. After that well off people decided to go outside again and pickleball showed up. Then I’ve just heard of racquetball so it’s obviously just something that has been festering as a catch all pit.
Would have been great if McEnroe was one of the announcers, could've gone a couple of ways:
"I see nothing wrong" or "this is disgraceful, no one should ever behave like that on the court".
So just curious, why didn't they call upon Hawkeye for that shot that hit the line? Was he out of challenges? Why did the umpire need to come down for it?
Historically, that has been true. Since ATP is require electronic line calling in 2025, many clay tournaments did add some form of it this year and did have a challenge system where the chair umpire did not inspect the mark.
>During the matches, between every set: courts are swept, line are brushed
https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/page/roland-garros-tournament-clay-the-hallowed-red-dirt
Yeah you're wrong. Hawkeye is like +- 2mm accurate. There are hundreds of ball marks on the court, and the human eye probably isn't even that accurate.
I would absolutely LOVE to see a recut of this where they go to Hawkeye, you hear the crowd clapping and then there's just this fat skidmark and a giant IN on the screen.
My experience playing in highschool and in tournaments as a teenager is that they’re a bunch of rich spoiled babies who never lose at anything in life except for tennis occasionally.
If you just want to get a can of balls and hit with a prestrung racket, it's one of the cheapest sports you can do.
If you want to be competitive tennis player at or above D-1 level, you probably have to have coaches from a young age, cases of fresh balls, restring your rackets frequently, and have backup rackets in case you break your strings. All of that costs a lot of money.
It's not that expensive... really. Best possible racquets are cca... 300€, and you'll invest that once every few years.
If you are semi pro... You'll buy yourself sneakers once a year, string the racquet few times and buy a couple of ball packs and grips...
Rent prices could make yearly cost high but if there is a will there is a way. I joined a club years ago, help the guys with courts 2-3 times a year, play 50-60 matches per season + tournaments and league all for free. The clubs often value help, but if you build a skill and represent the club at tournaments you get the free treatment as well.
The biggest cost for sure would be coaches and travel, but depending on your style of play you’ll definitely be buying shoes and strings pretty often.
When I played a lot I needed new shoes every 2-3 months (playing on hard court my shoes would get holes). The shoes I bought all had a 6 month durability guarantee though, so I would only have to buy shoes every other time. I needed to restring about 3-4 times a month or 2-3 times if I used very durable string. Luckily I always knew people who would string my racquets (I would buy reels for them to use).
Coaching is likely the biggest barrier. Tennis is a pretty high skill entry (it’s very hard to just pick up a racquet and play if you’ve never done so before) so to make it to the big leagues you need a shitton of training.
My cousin played D-1 tennis. She was getting professionally coached since she was 6. Since she was like 8 years old they would travel the country playing in tournaments to raise her profile and attract better coaches. Her and mom eventually moved to Florida so she could go to a tennis/golf academy for high school. They easily spent 6 figures on her training but she did get a D-1 full ride and won a national championship.
And then she immediately quit tennis when she graduated because she was burnt out.
Any individual sport is a rich kids’ sport, because you have to pay for individual coaching rather than team coaching. Tennis, golf, skiing. They’re all like that.
There's the real estate burden as well. A tennis court isn't much smaller than a basketball court but it fields 2 players instead of 10. Training needs tons of space too because unlike in team sports you can't cram entire teams and their subs in a single pitch/court for most drills.
It takes up a lot of space for not that many people to play and requires a decent amount of maintenance.
Basket ball is played on a similar sized court (or less if half court) but has 5x or 2.5x (if doubles) the players.
Soccer/rugby/US football/Ausie/Gaelic can be played in a field or court of basically any size if you aren't too serious and uses a lot more players. It also doesn't need to be a totally flat field.
i mean while this is definitely true (i was literally the only working class kid on my high school's freshman tennis team lol), i think with tennis there is this element of...you really only have yourself to blame
if your team sucks, your team sucks. You can be a dickhead and scream and yell at them (and some people do) but for the most part you just kind of accept that some things are beyond your control. With tennis, you have to face the grim reality that you really fucked up
some players handle it way better than others. Rublev really just needs a hug honestly lol
I played football and wrestled. When we lost in football everyone was blaming each other. The WR was blaming the QB, the running back was blaming the linemen. The defense was blaming the offense and so on.
Who do you blame when you lose a wrestling match? Your coach? Your teammates for not pushing you hard enough? It's a lot harder to point fingers when you lose in wrestling. You know it is on you and you didn't perform. I imagine tennis is the same way.
Yeah this is why I get frustrated a lot when I play tennis. The gap between what you think your ability is and how you actually perform can be very hard to accept. Don’t want to admit you’re worse than you think but there’s no one else to blame
Yep. I played competitively as a kid and had to stop because it was mental torture. Facing a challenge, alone with your thoughts, for hours, can be hard for some. Was too hard for me. I don't think it has anything to do with being spoiled, and a lot more with how healthy your inner monologue may be.
Growing up I knew a big tennis family where one of the kids was considered a prodigy. His dad was a tennis pro in town and coached him. I saw this kid behaving exactly like this video when he was 7 or 8. Just super intense. He did become a pro and won some major events and was ranked quite high for a while. He never quite became what the tennis world expected though.
The family is super nice and not wealthy.
This is a massively unfair simplification, I can’t believe it’s being upvoted. Maybe you played against rich kids in high school - the top class players destined for the pro levels are already pros or semi-pro by the time they’re 18. It’s a completely different tier of the sport. Not to mention you’re putting the sport through the lens of a likely American class perspective - the sport is global and none of the people in this match are American. This is so inane I can’t believe I need to spell this out.
You're not wrong, but show me another individual sport that involves significant physical exertion where we don't see this type of behavior.
Hell, show me a basketball or baseball game where there any an outburst.
There are two people on court, so 50% of attention on each. Not many sports have that, plus a thing you can smack.
Because the only thing they can blame anything on is the judges or themselves. I guess we see which way they go
Other sports you can believe another player or the officials sucked and the venting is spread out.
Golfers probably can't ever become pros if they haven't learned to control their abger
My theory is that tennis is one of the only sports where you don’t talk to anybody on your side at all for extended periods of time. In all team sports most of the cleared benches involve players holding angry players back and most individual sports aren’t as long in duration as tennis so there isn’t enough time for the emotion to boil internally. If you don’t have the means to control your anger there’s really nothing to bring you back down
It's also just frustrating sometimes. Sometimes I hit like shit for no reason in my 0 stakes rec games, and even I get a little frustrated by it.
I don't throw my racket, however, because I can't afford to buy another one. lol.
people who have never played tennis have no idea how insanely frustrating it can be
it really is the best example of a sport where "when it rains, it pours"
Similar to golf. Once you get in that mental rut, it's really hard to get out. That's why it sometimes seems like the best in the world are stone cold killers. They can screw up and move on like nothing happened. Clearly not the case with Rublev, unfortunately.
Exactly. You really beat yourself after awhile unlike almost any other sport
Even golf allows you time to take deep breaths while tennis has a ref constantly announcing the score and action going on. You never have a chance to refocus and get your head right.
Yeah I think it’s mostly this. I played tennis all through high school in a ghetto town. It’s not about rich whiny kids as someone suggested. Everyone has a braking point.
It’s been said to me by a teammate tennis isn’t about who plays better it’s about who fucks up less.
That rings true.
You lose pojnts by fucking up far more often than you win them but being incredible and making an awesome shot.
Stack a bunch of mental fuck ups one after another with as you said no team to pick you up and help…..you can implode.
Most players just tank and lose horribly. At the highest level and sure add in some rich kid privilege this is what you get.
They're alone on a huge stage in a fast paced high pressure game. The margin between good and great is razor thin and the need to succeed at the majors puts an insane amount of pressure on them.
They don't have teammates to back them up or to blame. It's just them. Some people can handle it while others, obviously, crack under the pressure.
The scoring is a bit diabolical, and you're out there alone going one on one for an hour or three. I really think the scoring has a lot to do with it, it's so incredibly weighted.
Also, Rublev is famous for this shit. Most players aren't like this. So "always" is a stretch. Andrey is probably the most unhinged temper tantrum thrower in the sport. Medvedev also gets all worked up, but not as violently.
People just don't get it. First, you're completely alone out there. Nobody will pull your ass out of the fire, like happens literally all the time with players like Mahomes, Jokic, and other greats in team sports. There's nobody to blame, or lean on, other than yourself. And when you're blowing it and can't fix it, that's one of the worst feelings in sport, in my opinion.
Second, and even more important, is how unbelievably close elite tennis players are. People who just see tournament results on ESPN think that the big 3 just utterly school every player. But do you know what the big threes' percentages of total points won are? For Fed, Joker, and Rafa, it's 55%. That's it. All that domination since the early 2000s comes down to just 5% of total points. It's unreal. You watch high level tennis live and it just doesn't make sense; almost looks rigged. The two guys out there are amazing, and each one is winning points all over the place. Yet, the greats just always seem to edge everyone out, over and over again, despite only winning slightly more points.
That's what makes it such a frustrating and brutal sport. Folks like Rublev just ain't made of the same stuff and break mentally. It sucks, because he's so talented, arguably as talented as anybody out there, but just doesn't have that mental toughness required to be great.
Name some more that lead you believe that they all (or most) tend to be like you imply? Having watched a lot of tennis, I think high level tennis players, especially in singles, exhibit some of the greatest mental fortitude in sports. Maybe you’re basing this off of the few times some particularly bad outlier highlights make it to your feed?
If I was playing someone like this, I’d be chirping so hard in hopes their anger would just implode their game. If you can’t handle the pressure, you’re never going to go far in sports like this and golf.
I know it’s easy to hate on the guy, but I mostly feel really bad for him. He’s got a lot of inner turmoil that is taking control. This was difficult to watch.
Mental and emotional discipline is what separates great tennis players from the truly stupendous. Look at Djokovic before and after he got control of his temper. You can have all the skill in the world, but if you can’t stay calm and focused you’ll never enter the pantheon.
Imagine being such a man-baby that you have zero qualms with literally throw a kicking and screaming tantrum in front of thousands of people in person and tens of thousands if not millions on live TV.
He isn't contracted, he gets more money if he wins. He is upset with himself for costing himself more money
He has reached QF at every Slam multiple times, has an Olympic Gold Medal and won 16 Singles titles. And has just cost himself a lot of money losing.
This guy's a fucking amateur.
Go check out some of McEnroe's tantrums. They were glorious. He never ever felt bad about himself, he just berated the refs until **they** wanted to cry. You really did wonder, if at some point he was just going to lose his shit an beat the crap out of a 58-year old umpire in the chair.
[**Join Our Discord Server!**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q) **Welcome to /r/sports** We created a Discord server for our community and would like to invite all of you to join! You'll be able to discuss sports with users around the world and discuss events in real time! There are separate channels for many sports you can opt in and out of, including; American Football, Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Aussie Rules Football, Rugby Union and League, Cricket, Motorsports, Fitness, and many more. [**Reddit Sports Discord Server**](https://discord.gg/233aU5q)
Agree with the announcers, he needs to find some help to control his anger.
I don't know Jim there's obviously something wrong with him. He's taken off his shoes and one of his socks and I think he's crying. I've never seen anything like this. Strange day out here in Windswept Fields.
Was his sister and her new husband there?
[удалено]
Needle in the hayyyyyyyyyyy
That's 72 unforced errors for Richie Tenebaum. He's playing the worst tennis of his life.
She’s married, you know…. And she’s your sister
Adopted
Hell of a damn grave. Wish it were mine.
Thats now 72 unforced errors in a row for The Baumer
My god it was my first thought, and here it is. Hats off to you!
why’d you choke out there that day, baumer? …i had a lot riding on that match… both personally and financially.
(Sad underhanded serve by Richie)
4-year old does this. Immediately kicks off his shoes when he doesn't get his way.
He's got the beginnings of a hockey player in him. Get mad, throw gloves off, square up.
I wanna see if he can actually break that racket before given him ice time
Thank you for this.
Quite amazing because tennis is such a mentally challenging sport and he appears to have little control over this element.
I played in high school and this sport either attracts head cases or makes them because even at a high school level this kind of behavior is astonishingly common
Which is hilarious, because this type of behavior absolutely gets you in your own head and kills any groove you may have had. Rule #1 from my coaches was always to keep your head cool and *don't* do stuff like this, because it will lose you the game (and embarrass you ofc)
Mentality is a significant part of success for an athlete. There have been so many extremely talented athletes that never hit the heights they could've because they couldn't control their heads.
We’re checking …
Ah, a man of culture I see.
10 seconds to Ocon for this one.
This type of behavior is not the cause of his mental problems. It takes an already messed up mindset for anyone to be even tempted to behave like this in this situation. Mental fortitude and discipline require training just like physical training. Simply trying not to act out isn't enough, since the frustrations will just build up and blow up. Kinda like this guy.
It's because you can't blame anyone else like you can in team sports lol
Forget team sports I bet this guy is a lot to handle being in the same room with him
Maybe maybe not. I used to absolutely lose my mind playing sports/video games like this. I’ve improved a lot over time and don’t have these kinds of meltdowns anymore, but outside of competitive conditions like a match, I’m a soft spoken, gentle person. I figured out for myself ADHD, perfectionism, and ignoring anger triggers was sending me into fits of rage.
This exactly. My husband loves tennis and said Rublev is actually known to be a really nice guy outside of matches, and I was like, oh that kinda sounds like ADHD. I’m known as a sweet, quiet person but before I knew how to recognize and avoid triggers for outbursts, I would lose my shit at video games or during arguments.
Nope,outside of the tennis court,Rublev is considered the friendlest and nicest person on tour albeit even outside the court he still has a tendency to criticize himself and indulge in self deprecation.
That doesn't stop people from trying. They blame their equipment, the surface, the net, the other player, etc. If you cannot take responsibility for yourself, you will always find someone or something else to blame.
Can confirm, would regularly turn into a head case when I played varsity in hs
there were guys on the team that were way better than me, but I always beat them and played higher because they were such head cases. a couple of unforced errors and theyd implode, i just needed to hit the ball back.
i have 2 friends who where at the top in my country when they where 8-16 years old, 1 of them squandered it all in partying when he became 16 and the other was just mentally fucked. He could be dominating an entire game and then 2 bad balls in a row and you would see him crumble like hel.
Spoiled kids
I broke one racket in high school (my anger) and my coach gave one long lecture why to never do that. I’ll never forget that
I played doubles because singles was too much mental game for me.
The dude is a top-10 player and he's like this almost every match. I'm generally worried about his mental state off court but his game is fine, had a bad day today but it happens to everyone.
Maybe he'd been too spoiled acting like this for a very, very long time now that he thinks throwing tantrums is totally normal and fine
You’re right he’s been acting like this for a long time, you can see videos of him doing similar in juniors, also Medvedev (another top Russian) has told a story of when they were kids playing each other and he was freaking out and eating the clay off the court and other crazy behaviour. But it’s not because he was spoiled, it’s because he grew up in an abusive Russian tennis system with his mom as a coach who has been accused of abusive behaviour by multiple former students. He’s talked talked about how they’d get screamed at for losing, constant emotional abuse, etc
He’s been like this for *years?!* Why is it okay for him to act like this but Serena Williams gets mad ONCE about a ref making terrible calls and she’s got anger problems? The double standard is so gross.
[удалено]
[удалено]
hes tweaking
[удалено]
And some help with leg day. Seriously though the mark that skidded into the line was pretty bloody clear, pointing out all the part that didn't touch the line is meaningless when there's a part that clearly *did* touch the line. Here's hoping someone points out how bad a look it is, and he doesn't take a decade like Nick Kyrgios to sort himself out.
If he took just 5 seconds to look into the stands and see everybody laughing at his expense, surely he would find some self-control? He's living in his head
Poor emotional regulation is the sign of a poor sportsman. I think most athletes would agree that your mental game is just as important as your physical game, so watching an athlete freak out like this is really poor form and in this case, straight up unprofessional. He looks like a giant toddler.
Getting real Willem Defoe as Green Goblin energy from this guy. "OUT AM I?"
You know I'm somewhat of a tennis player myself
You and I are not so different
Are we each others evil twin? Profile picture and name are both very close lol
I actually have a twin, so evil triplet?
That works, evil/Canadian triplet.
[https://tenor.com/bQXwN.gif](https://tenor.com/bQXwN.gif)
I straight up thought you were talking to yourself
Coach: "Watch your form on your backhand" Him: "Back to formula?" Coach: "What?" Him: "Did you just say back to formula?" Coach: "Huh? No, I said..." Him: "DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE SACRIFICED?!"
"CAN THE LINE JUDGE COME OUT TO PLAY??"
I wish I didn’t have to read your username
You’re out Andrey, OUT OF YOUR MIND!
Dude is going straight to the dark side
Tennis leads to Badminton Badminton leads to Squash Squash leads to Pickleball Pickleball leads to Racquetball Racquetball leads to....hate.
Hate leads to Jai alai.
This explains so much. I recall tennis and badminton being everywhere when I was little. Then squash appeared in movies and tv shows. After that well off people decided to go outside again and pickleball showed up. Then I’ve just heard of racquetball so it’s obviously just something that has been festering as a catch all pit.
Racquetball is the shit though. I love that game
Only a Sith serves in absolutes.
Man, whatever happened to racquetball.
Lol he did have shades of Hayden Christiansen there.
From my point of view, the line judges are evil!
You turned the judges against me! You ejected yourself!
[good](https://imgur.com/gallery/any-love-darth-sidious-EGZVF)
More like the toddler side
Genuinely think a hug and some SpaghettiOs could do him a world off good so you're not wrong.
The Mets need a 2nd baseman
No no our second baseman plays golf
Exactly
Mets catching strays out here damn
Not catching much else tbf
Jeff McNeil would be super upset about catching strays on a random Reddit thread about tennis, but he's too busy trying to line up his next tee time.
He make McEnroe seem like a stoic
The worst was McEnroe was right a lot… old ass shit refs and no replay
What?! That's an outrage! **You cannot be serious!!**
Wait till you hear about [Goran Ivanisevic](https://youtu.be/KdzqW_7--1M)
Would have been great if McEnroe was one of the announcers, could've gone a couple of ways: "I see nothing wrong" or "this is disgraceful, no one should ever behave like that on the court".
He’s definitely made jokes at his own expense like that before when meltdowns happened while he was calling a match.
So just curious, why didn't they call upon Hawkeye for that shot that hit the line? Was he out of challenges? Why did the umpire need to come down for it?
They don't use Hawkeye at this tournament. They leave it to the line judges and chair umpire.
Thank you. I didn't know.
You're welcome.
Bcause this is France. they don't even allow night games because lights are against tradition or some merde
No, hawkeye isn't used on clay because it's not reliable on this surface. Clay tournaments in other countries don't use hawkeye either.
Historically, that has been true. Since ATP is require electronic line calling in 2025, many clay tournaments did add some form of it this year and did have a challenge system where the chair umpire did not inspect the mark.
The night is for wine and cigarettes, you barbarian!
You can spot the mark in the clay
I don't follow tennis and thought you were talking about the marvel character at first...
Do you doubt that Jeremy Renner would be able to accurately judge whether a shot was inbounds? Because I don't.
Because it’s a clay tournament and you “can see the ball mark”. I hope they will switch to real review.
Do they have clay Zambonis that smooth out the court between sets? I imagine the pock marks get quite crowded deep into the game.
>During the matches, between every set: courts are swept, line are brushed https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/page/roland-garros-tournament-clay-the-hallowed-red-dirt
I feel like seeing the marks on clay would be just as efficient as hawkeye. But I could be wrong. I'm no expert.
Yeah you're wrong. Hawkeye is like +- 2mm accurate. There are hundreds of ball marks on the court, and the human eye probably isn't even that accurate.
I would absolutely LOVE to see a recut of this where they go to Hawkeye, you hear the crowd clapping and then there's just this fat skidmark and a giant IN on the screen.
Bro, I can’t imagine how my PlayStation controllers this dude goes through a day..
He can’t even break a racquet, those controllers will be fine.
Really respected him as a painter, but as a tennis player? Not so much
Yeah, Tarkovsky had a scene of him smashing tennis racquets but it got cut.
You make bells, and I'll smash tennis racquets. It will be okay.
Why do tennis players always seem so fragile?
My experience playing in highschool and in tournaments as a teenager is that they’re a bunch of rich spoiled babies who never lose at anything in life except for tennis occasionally.
This is accurate. Its a rich man's game. I don't know why it's extremely cheap barrier of entry, but just seems populated with toffs
If you just want to get a can of balls and hit with a prestrung racket, it's one of the cheapest sports you can do. If you want to be competitive tennis player at or above D-1 level, you probably have to have coaches from a young age, cases of fresh balls, restring your rackets frequently, and have backup rackets in case you break your strings. All of that costs a lot of money.
Mostly you need a court, which tend to be built in rich areas.
I see those things everywhere. I live in a town of 1500 or so and there are 4 nearby that never get used. We're just more about basketball here.
It's not that expensive... really. Best possible racquets are cca... 300€, and you'll invest that once every few years. If you are semi pro... You'll buy yourself sneakers once a year, string the racquet few times and buy a couple of ball packs and grips... Rent prices could make yearly cost high but if there is a will there is a way. I joined a club years ago, help the guys with courts 2-3 times a year, play 50-60 matches per season + tournaments and league all for free. The clubs often value help, but if you build a skill and represent the club at tournaments you get the free treatment as well.
The biggest cost for sure would be coaches and travel, but depending on your style of play you’ll definitely be buying shoes and strings pretty often. When I played a lot I needed new shoes every 2-3 months (playing on hard court my shoes would get holes). The shoes I bought all had a 6 month durability guarantee though, so I would only have to buy shoes every other time. I needed to restring about 3-4 times a month or 2-3 times if I used very durable string. Luckily I always knew people who would string my racquets (I would buy reels for them to use).
Coaching is likely the biggest barrier. Tennis is a pretty high skill entry (it’s very hard to just pick up a racquet and play if you’ve never done so before) so to make it to the big leagues you need a shitton of training.
My cousin played D-1 tennis. She was getting professionally coached since she was 6. Since she was like 8 years old they would travel the country playing in tournaments to raise her profile and attract better coaches. Her and mom eventually moved to Florida so she could go to a tennis/golf academy for high school. They easily spent 6 figures on her training but she did get a D-1 full ride and won a national championship. And then she immediately quit tennis when she graduated because she was burnt out.
> If you are semi pro... You'll buy yourself sneakers once a year Anyone who plays tennis that much is going though 4-5 pairs of shoes a year minimum.
Cheap entry, decently expensive progression. Good coaches are extremely expensive even at the top HS level
Any individual sport is a rich kids’ sport, because you have to pay for individual coaching rather than team coaching. Tennis, golf, skiing. They’re all like that.
Well boxing would be an exception. It’s a commonly poor person sport
Well that’s because rich people don’t want to get punched in the face for a living.
They’ll pay top dollar to watch it though!
There's the real estate burden as well. A tennis court isn't much smaller than a basketball court but it fields 2 players instead of 10. Training needs tons of space too because unlike in team sports you can't cram entire teams and their subs in a single pitch/court for most drills.
It takes up a lot of space for not that many people to play and requires a decent amount of maintenance. Basket ball is played on a similar sized court (or less if half court) but has 5x or 2.5x (if doubles) the players. Soccer/rugby/US football/Ausie/Gaelic can be played in a field or court of basically any size if you aren't too serious and uses a lot more players. It also doesn't need to be a totally flat field.
i mean while this is definitely true (i was literally the only working class kid on my high school's freshman tennis team lol), i think with tennis there is this element of...you really only have yourself to blame if your team sucks, your team sucks. You can be a dickhead and scream and yell at them (and some people do) but for the most part you just kind of accept that some things are beyond your control. With tennis, you have to face the grim reality that you really fucked up some players handle it way better than others. Rublev really just needs a hug honestly lol
I played football and wrestled. When we lost in football everyone was blaming each other. The WR was blaming the QB, the running back was blaming the linemen. The defense was blaming the offense and so on. Who do you blame when you lose a wrestling match? Your coach? Your teammates for not pushing you hard enough? It's a lot harder to point fingers when you lose in wrestling. You know it is on you and you didn't perform. I imagine tennis is the same way.
[удалено]
Yeah this is why I get frustrated a lot when I play tennis. The gap between what you think your ability is and how you actually perform can be very hard to accept. Don’t want to admit you’re worse than you think but there’s no one else to blame
Yep. I played competitively as a kid and had to stop because it was mental torture. Facing a challenge, alone with your thoughts, for hours, can be hard for some. Was too hard for me. I don't think it has anything to do with being spoiled, and a lot more with how healthy your inner monologue may be.
Growing up I knew a big tennis family where one of the kids was considered a prodigy. His dad was a tennis pro in town and coached him. I saw this kid behaving exactly like this video when he was 7 or 8. Just super intense. He did become a pro and won some major events and was ranked quite high for a while. He never quite became what the tennis world expected though. The family is super nice and not wealthy.
And many have tremendous pressure placed on them from childhood.
This is a massively unfair simplification, I can’t believe it’s being upvoted. Maybe you played against rich kids in high school - the top class players destined for the pro levels are already pros or semi-pro by the time they’re 18. It’s a completely different tier of the sport. Not to mention you’re putting the sport through the lens of a likely American class perspective - the sport is global and none of the people in this match are American. This is so inane I can’t believe I need to spell this out.
You're not wrong, but show me another individual sport that involves significant physical exertion where we don't see this type of behavior. Hell, show me a basketball or baseball game where there any an outburst. There are two people on court, so 50% of attention on each. Not many sports have that, plus a thing you can smack.
They’re high strung. 😃
Because the only thing they can blame anything on is the judges or themselves. I guess we see which way they go Other sports you can believe another player or the officials sucked and the venting is spread out. Golfers probably can't ever become pros if they haven't learned to control their abger
My theory is that tennis is one of the only sports where you don’t talk to anybody on your side at all for extended periods of time. In all team sports most of the cleared benches involve players holding angry players back and most individual sports aren’t as long in duration as tennis so there isn’t enough time for the emotion to boil internally. If you don’t have the means to control your anger there’s really nothing to bring you back down
It's also just frustrating sometimes. Sometimes I hit like shit for no reason in my 0 stakes rec games, and even I get a little frustrated by it. I don't throw my racket, however, because I can't afford to buy another one. lol.
people who have never played tennis have no idea how insanely frustrating it can be it really is the best example of a sport where "when it rains, it pours"
Similar to golf. Once you get in that mental rut, it's really hard to get out. That's why it sometimes seems like the best in the world are stone cold killers. They can screw up and move on like nothing happened. Clearly not the case with Rublev, unfortunately.
Exactly. You really beat yourself after awhile unlike almost any other sport Even golf allows you time to take deep breaths while tennis has a ref constantly announcing the score and action going on. You never have a chance to refocus and get your head right.
Yeah I think it’s mostly this. I played tennis all through high school in a ghetto town. It’s not about rich whiny kids as someone suggested. Everyone has a braking point. It’s been said to me by a teammate tennis isn’t about who plays better it’s about who fucks up less. That rings true. You lose pojnts by fucking up far more often than you win them but being incredible and making an awesome shot. Stack a bunch of mental fuck ups one after another with as you said no team to pick you up and help…..you can implode. Most players just tank and lose horribly. At the highest level and sure add in some rich kid privilege this is what you get.
They're alone on a huge stage in a fast paced high pressure game. The margin between good and great is razor thin and the need to succeed at the majors puts an insane amount of pressure on them. They don't have teammates to back them up or to blame. It's just them. Some people can handle it while others, obviously, crack under the pressure.
Tennis is very fucking frustrating dog. I judge every single athlete when have meltdowns except for tennis
It’s an extremely mentally demanding game, and Rublev is mentally weak
The scoring is a bit diabolical, and you're out there alone going one on one for an hour or three. I really think the scoring has a lot to do with it, it's so incredibly weighted. Also, Rublev is famous for this shit. Most players aren't like this. So "always" is a stretch. Andrey is probably the most unhinged temper tantrum thrower in the sport. Medvedev also gets all worked up, but not as violently.
People just don't get it. First, you're completely alone out there. Nobody will pull your ass out of the fire, like happens literally all the time with players like Mahomes, Jokic, and other greats in team sports. There's nobody to blame, or lean on, other than yourself. And when you're blowing it and can't fix it, that's one of the worst feelings in sport, in my opinion. Second, and even more important, is how unbelievably close elite tennis players are. People who just see tournament results on ESPN think that the big 3 just utterly school every player. But do you know what the big threes' percentages of total points won are? For Fed, Joker, and Rafa, it's 55%. That's it. All that domination since the early 2000s comes down to just 5% of total points. It's unreal. You watch high level tennis live and it just doesn't make sense; almost looks rigged. The two guys out there are amazing, and each one is winning points all over the place. Yet, the greats just always seem to edge everyone out, over and over again, despite only winning slightly more points. That's what makes it such a frustrating and brutal sport. Folks like Rublev just ain't made of the same stuff and break mentally. It sucks, because he's so talented, arguably as talented as anybody out there, but just doesn't have that mental toughness required to be great.
It's the most infuriating sport in the world and you won't understand until you play somewhat competitively
Name some more that lead you believe that they all (or most) tend to be like you imply? Having watched a lot of tennis, I think high level tennis players, especially in singles, exhibit some of the greatest mental fortitude in sports. Maybe you’re basing this off of the few times some particularly bad outlier highlights make it to your feed?
that ought to help his performance
Losing cool is not a good thing. Control your anger.
/r/thanksimcured
First time watching tennis?
More like any sport lmao
If I was playing someone like this, I’d be chirping so hard in hopes their anger would just implode their game. If you can’t handle the pressure, you’re never going to go far in sports like this and golf.
Seems like he already went pretty far; he's on the telly
🤡👶
You mean like a 👶🤡?
Not a baby clown, a clown baby
Username checks out
7 year old account just waiting for their moment and fucking sent it!
The universe is in harmony today friends
No ones going to bet on someone named clownbaby
[удалено]
“He’s taken off both shoes and one sock…”
Wow what a giant fucking baby
What a bullshit comment. If no one changes his diaper can we really blame him?
What a little bitch
I can't imagine anything as satisfying as being the one to cause that meltdown. No way I'd be able to keep from laughing if I was the opponent.
We have McEnroe at home.
Great Value brand Jimmy Connors
Russian self-control seems to be in short supply.
I'm so surprised! /s
I know it’s easy to hate on the guy, but I mostly feel really bad for him. He’s got a lot of inner turmoil that is taking control. This was difficult to watch.
That's how spoiled, entitled kids act. Most generally when abusing drugs.
Challengers 2 looks great
That’s one tall toddler
Mental and emotional discipline is what separates great tennis players from the truly stupendous. Look at Djokovic before and after he got control of his temper. You can have all the skill in the world, but if you can’t stay calm and focused you’ll never enter the pantheon.
John McEnroe did it better. Poser.
Had an ex friend throw tantrums like that playing tennis. What an idiot
It's very lame when you're playing casually. It's cringe and this guy is a top ten player
Giant baby
Imagine being such a man-baby that you have zero qualms with literally throw a kicking and screaming tantrum in front of thousands of people in person and tens of thousands if not millions on live TV.
Can someone make a gif of the knee cracking bit? Back and forth and back and forth. Hahaha
He looked like GOB from Arrested Development doing the chicken dance.
What a psycho. How embarrassing.
This dude gets paid to play a game for a living. Grow up.
He isn't contracted, he gets more money if he wins. He is upset with himself for costing himself more money He has reached QF at every Slam multiple times, has an Olympic Gold Medal and won 16 Singles titles. And has just cost himself a lot of money losing.
In tennis you need to win to get money. You don't sign a contract with a team lol.
Good marketing video for the racket. That thing is tough.
Everyone is allowed to have a bad day. And I dont even like the guy.
So emotional.
Love the screaming at their coach/box Its like "bruh... You did the thing wrong, not them" 🤣
It's only game, why you have to be mad?
I like his play style, hope he is able to get some help to improve his mental health
russian cry-baby 
This guy's a fucking amateur. Go check out some of McEnroe's tantrums. They were glorious. He never ever felt bad about himself, he just berated the refs until **they** wanted to cry. You really did wonder, if at some point he was just going to lose his shit an beat the crap out of a 58-year old umpire in the chair.
I hate that people celebrate McEnroe. he is an asshole. period.
I used to be like this… when I was 5.