I’ve seen brawls at various other sporting events, but would never expect it at the US Open of all places. The fight occurred during the Djokovic and Petzschner match Thursday night. Granted this was pretty tame compared to say this, which involved players as well as fans, it has actually gone viral today. Check it out:
The fight began when a woman confronted a young man over his foul language. According to NBC news he also challenged her to hit him if she had a problem with his language, and she slapped him in the face. After exchanging some words, the older man pulled the woman’s shirt, and she stepped away from the younger man. It looked like the fight was over, until the older man kicked what appeared to be a drink, and went for the younger guy’s head. They both tumbled over the seats below. All three were eventually thrown out and banned from the US Open until 2012.
From the video, I think all three are to blame equally, even though the crowd seemed to hate on the younger guy. The young guy should have shut his trap, the woman slapped him, and the old man attacked him. All three deserved to be kicked out for disrupting the match, but in the end, no matter what the younger guy said, they didn’t have the right to slap and attack him.
Some believe that tennis is now attracting a much broader fan base that is unfamiliar with the kind of conduct that is expected on and off the court. I don’t know about that. I am sure there has not been a significant rise in such incidences at professional tennis events, but that the stories reaches us more quickly and become viral because of youtube, camera phones, twitter etc.
[…] is even more clear when we look at how we deal with other types of crime. Remember that post on the fight at the US Open. Most people can agree that while the young man was acting like a douchebag, the two older people who […]