{"id":94423,"date":"2025-08-25T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T10:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/94423\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T10:20:09","slug":"at-the-u-s-open-tennis-etiquette-no-longer-rules-some-players-want-that-to-be-the-norm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/94423\/","title":{"rendered":"At the U.S. Open, tennis etiquette no longer rules. Some players want that to be the norm"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLUSHING, N.Y. \u2014 In late summer, professional tennis<\/a> lands in opposite world in New York City.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t go looking for hushed tones, decorous silence or the other traditions of a sport whose roots exist on the hallowed lawns of polite society. At the U.S. Open<\/a>, music blares from speakers. A near-constant buzz rises from every crowd, interrupted only by bursts of exuberance. Trains rumble behind the main stadiums, Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong, while planes approaching and departing from La Guardia Airport bring their stomach-churning roars.<\/p>\n

The Billie Jean King Tennis Center opens for business and a lot of basic tennis etiquette takes a break. This is an amped-up, raucous version of the sport.<\/p>\n

On day one of the 2025 tournament, 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev provided a signal example by inciting the crowd to delay his match against France\u2019s Benjamin Bonzi<\/a> for six minutes \u2014 while he was down match point. A photographer walked onto the court between Bonzi\u2019s first and second serves. Umpire Greg Allensworth ruled that Bonzi should get a first serve. Irate, Medvedev approached Allensworth\u2019s chair, whipping up the crowd to boo and chant. After berating Allensworth, Medvedev returned to the baseline. Bonzi got ready to serve. The crowd didn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n

This was extreme. But all the players know that they are in for a ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know if you\u2019re playing on Ashe it\u2019s going to be loud, especially a night match,\u201d said Madison Keys, the Australian Open champion<\/a>. It\u2019s so loud that she often can\u2019t hear her coaches, or the sound of the ball off the opponent\u2019s strings, which is a key cue for players at the elite level. \u201cYou have to learn sign language pretty quickly, and sometimes you fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

When night gives way to day, the sun continues to rise and the sport goes on. The world gets a glimpse of what some players wish tennis would be all the time: a noisy rumble that looks a lot more like basically every other sport, in which self-expression, celebration and trash talk are welcomed as entertainment enhancements rather than affronts to common decency. Most of the majors have made small adjustments, like music at changeovers, light shows at night, and letting crowds move more freely, especially higher up in larger stadiums. But needle and drama remain unembraced, even when they are taken as normal in the hyper-competitive world of other elite sports.<\/p>\n

That is especially true for Americans, who get celebrated in New York more than anyone else. They\u2019ve grown up watching the NBA and the NFL and even baseball, where jawing and showboating are pro forma. They are not really sure why they have to behave like they are at a funeral.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand respect and respecting your opponents and the traditions of tennis,\u201d said Ben Shelton<\/a>, who has become a crowd favorite across the globe for his big-time game and exuberance to match, after opening the tournament for 2025 on the biggest stage in tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, I think that people get called out for little things or the wrong things. It\u2019s like: \u2018Really? We\u2019re going to give someone a hard time about that?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a simple conversation with somebody, is, like, looked down upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelton has no shortage of company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally have always been on the side of the rules should be more lax towards letting players express themselves on the court because I think it adds more excitement, more things happen,\u201d said Taylor Fritz<\/a>, a finalist here last year.<\/p>\n

Fritz, who rode a sufficiently raucous crowd on Louis Armstrong Stadium to a first-round win over compatriot Emilio Nava, doesn\u2019t understand why players get fined for breaking a racket, as long as they don\u2019t endanger anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if some people don\u2019t like it, it still sparks a reaction and more eyes. Most people break a racket and hand it to a kid and it makes a kid\u2019s year probably. We should move more in that direction, as much in that direction as we can while still keeping the core principles of tennis the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

In tennis, as in other sports, the tension between old standards and new approaches can emerge as one generation takes the spotlight from another and a sport becomes more diverse. Baseball worked through its behavioral debate during the past decade, as a new generation of\u00a0 players brought an exuberance and some pretty fun post-home run bat flipping to the game that so-called traditionalists found disrespectful. The NFL, long known as a the \u201cNo Fun League,\u201d finally loosened its rules about touchdown celebrations eight years ago, though taunts and violent gestures can garner unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.<\/p>\n

If there is one place that most tennis players will draw a line, it\u2019s noise during points. At the top level, the noise of racket on ball is a crucial indicator of the speed, spin and depth with which it will approach. Taking away that cue makes playing much more difficult.<\/p>\n

Still, something of an evolution is taking place, with the pressure to adopt courtliness on the wane. Medvedev, the demonstrative and colorful Russian, has been waiting for this moment for nearly a decade, though what he delivered Sunday night into Monday morning \u2014 including questioning Allensworth over whether he was \u201ca man,\u201d crossed the line. Bonzi said that the Russian \u201cput oil on the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting a big fine,\u201d he said in a news conference after a five-set defeat that would likely have been a three-set one without his intervention.<\/p>\n

Still, the distinction between basic etiquette and what might be considered showboating or taunting can shift from week to week and tournament to tournament, depending on the locale. The Australian Open has the air of a festival. The French Open crowd is famously touchy, especially when one of their own is involved. Then there\u2019s Wimbledon, where the most frequent noise is likely to be a \u201cssshhhhh\u201d rippling across Centre Court when someone yells out of turn.<\/p>\n

That principle of change according to context goes for fans, too. As Alex Eala got on her way to making more history for the Philippines by beating No. 14 seed Clara Tauson, the huge Filipino diaspora, concentrated just a few minutes away by train in Woodside, Queens, backed its woman to the hilt. The Filipino fans cheered her every move. They cheered Tauson\u2019s every error. The Dane, frazzled and exasperated, let Eala back in from 5-1 down in the third set, before the archipelago\u2019s new sporting hero won the deciding tiebreak 13-11.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A raucous, partisan crowd powered Alex Eala to victory \u2014 the first for the Philippines in the main draw of a Grand Slam. (Sarah Stier \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In New York, just about anything goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can definitely go for it, get the crowd involved,\u201d said Emma Raducanu, who rode the love through qualifying and all the way to the title four years ago, in her news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd love it if you\u2019re getting pumped and celebrating a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, players learn they\u2019re taking things too far. Shelton is plenty familiar with that.<\/p>\n

He is a product of college tennis, an atmosphere that is as rowdy as it gets in the sport, in which no amount of fist-pumps or celebratory screams are considered over the top. Even now, three years removed from that college career, he only holds back so much.<\/p>\n

There are moments in just about every match Shelton plays that he does something ridiculous, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Sunday, it was a running forehand around the net post late in the second set that got it going. He twirled his index finger right around his ear, signaling the crowd to give him a little more. The 20,000-or-so fans in the biggest stadium in tennis more than obliged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m an entertainer at heart,\u201d Shelton said ahead of the tournament. \u201cI\u2019m never going to be the guy who just, like, is able to robotically go about my business and not change expression or show any emotion. I think that I play better when I do show some emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still learning where the sweet spot is. Just two years ago, during his first run to a Grand Slam semifinal, Shelton\u2019s post-match celebration included hanging up the phone on his beaten opponent.<\/p>\n

When Novak Djokovic beat him in straight sets to end what was an upstart run, he hung up the phone right back, sending the message that Shelton had crossed a line between celebrating and showing up an opponent. Shelton gave him a death stare at the net during the handshake and said afterward that he believed players should be free to celebrate however they want.<\/p>\n

He has not hung up the phone since, though sometimes he can\u2019t resist letting out a high-decibel \u201cYEAH\u201d when an opponent sends a ball out or into the net during a key rally. Most players largely celebrate their own successes, rather than their opponents\u2019 errors, and antics like those supposedly violate the sport\u2019s unwritten behavioral codes.<\/p>\n

Andrea Vavassori, one half of the U.S. Open mixed doubles champions with Sara Errani, scolded Shelton for hitting him with a close-range shot early in a men\u2019s doubles match this spring, though the shot was completely legitimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo soft,\u201d Shelton was heard saying to his partner Rohan Bopanna as they gathered their gear after beating Vavassori and his partner Simone Bolelli.<\/p>\n

Shelton had a disagreement with Flavio Cobolli over a gesture the Italian made toward the end of their three-set semifinal in Toronto earlier this month. Shelton, who is 6 feet 4 inches, with the chiseled physique of a prize fighter, was shirtless as they talked things out. He stood up, moved in close with his arms crossed, putting Cobolli\u2019s eyes about even with his chin.<\/p>\n

It was the sort of face-off that happens multiple times in every NFL game. But because it was tennis, it became a social media moment that zipped around the internet, with some debate about whether Shelton crossed some nebulous celebratory line with his emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a younger crowd in tennis is really important in attracting younger fans, the future fans of our sport,\u201d he said. \u201cThe kids love the flair and the excitement and the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

But both Shelton and Cobolli quickly attempted to stifle any potential fallout from the incident, defaulting to decorum as fast as they could. They insisted they had settled the matter in the locker room and didn\u2019t want to talk about it any more. That\u2019s the way things are supposed to happen in this sport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Flavio Cobolli and Ben Shelton\u2019s confrontation in Canada wouldn\u2019t have caused much fuss in most other sports. (Matthew Stockman \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was not so dissimilar from the events following the French Open women\u2019s final, when Aryna Sabalenka dissed Coco Gauff in defeat<\/a> after Gauff came back to beat her in three sets. Sabalenka blamed the conditions and herself, saying that Gauff hadn\u2019t won \u2014 she lost. Gauff took some issue with this, but with the title in hand, she didn\u2019t need to be too bothered.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka posted an apology within days, after bearing the brunt of a major, understandable backlash. By the time they showed up at Wimbledon, a peacemaking effort was underway. They filmed a TikTok dance video on Centre Court, to prove they buried the hatchet. But then Wimbledon itself promoted the video, because in tennis peace must prevail, even if sporting rivalries so often benefit from some genuine needle.<\/p>\n

Now contrast those events with the eye-catching confrontation between Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek<\/a> at last month\u2019s U.S. Track and Field Championships. Lyles stared down Bednarek as he crossed the finish line of the 200 meters, ahead of his rival. Bednarek didn\u2019t like it and gave Lyles a shove as they slowed down. There were words, and for a couple of days fans and non-fans alike were talking about nothing else.<\/p>\n

\u201cBonkers,\u201d Frances Tiafoe, America\u2019s top tennis showman, said of the incident.<\/p>\n

But tennis didn\u2019t tie itself in knots trying to produce a detente. The two are due to face each other in September at the World Track and Field Championships in Tokyo. The sport\u2019s leaders and everyone who follows it can\u2019t wait, including Shelton, who is a track nut.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething is on the line and everyone is tuning in,\u201d Shelton said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly the sort of stuff that Tiafoe said he\u2019d like to see more of in tennis, rather than the automatic reversion to the unwritten codes of this supposed genteel game. He\u2019d like to act that way himself at the end of some matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to be like, \u2018I don\u2019t like you,\u2019\u201d he said ahead of the tournament, where he has become a master of leading the crowd on Arthur Ashe like a conductor guiding an orchestra. \u201cI wish there was a lot more of that, because, I mean, like you lose a tough match. \u2018Oh, man, I\u2019m so happy for you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, you\u2019re not. Like, you\u2019re not. You\u2019re just not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiafoe, an obsessive NBA and NFL fan, watches his comrades trash talk their way through game after game and wishes tennis could be that way. It might even be good for business. The NBA and the NFL are pretty successful entities. Still, he doesn\u2019t have high hopes for the scrapping of more than a century of decorum. A fortnight of sound and fury in New York will have to do. Thanks to Medvedev, the festivities have started early.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Angela Weiss \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLUSHING, N.Y. \u2014 In late summer, professional tennis lands in opposite world in New York City. Don\u2019t go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,2331,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-94423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-culture","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}