... and the winners are. Rafael Nadal, LeBron James, Serena Williams and Michelle Larcher del Brito.
Honorable Mention: Goes to Rafael Nadal for dissing Robin Soderling after losing to the Swede in the French Open by saying, "He's not very popular in the locker room." Nadal has apparently disliked Soderling since their five-set match at Wimbledon. When Soderling got tired of Nadal's constant delays on every change over, on every serve -- often going well beyond the 20-second time limit while tugging on his underwear -- Soderling made fun of Nadal by pulling on his own shorts.
Soderling is not alone is objecting to Nadal's stall tactics, he's just one of the few to go public. As a commenter on BBC noted: "Dmitri Tursunov was a guest on Radio Roland Garros last week, and he gave a very honest/objective and fair take on Nadal’s “peccadilloes” being irritating (to his opponents) and being unfair. Most players choose not to discuss the issue in public, but hats off to Soderling for having made a statement."
First Runner Up!: Michelle Larcher del Brito. The 16-year-old tennis player has taken shreiking to a new level. Not only is she the loudest yet, but del Brito has the endurance record.
Del Brito's shreiks often take over four seconds, she starts in a high pitch, then shifts tones and increases the volume when her opponent is getting ready to strike the ball. There are two issues: Female tennis players yelling while hitting the ball has been an issue since Monica Seles. You can argue that point.
But del Brito actually yells during her opponent's swing, which is clearly a hindrance.
What really elevates her performance to the runner-up spot is her snottiness: When warned by officials, she verbally abused them.
When told in press conferences that many paying fans objected, she said, "Then let them leave." If they keep the file up you can inflict her yeowl on your ears by going to the StraightSets blog.
The Whiner, er Winner: Serena Williams. None of these miscreants, despite their accomplishments, came close to The Poor Sport of the Year WInner: Tennis' Serena Williams.
When Williams got into a disagreement over a call while she was losing a set to a qualifier at the French Open, Williams threatened to physically assault her opponent in the locker room: "I'm going to get you in the locker room. You don't know me." Then later told the chair if her opponent came near the net, Williams would deliberately try to hit her. Unaware that her threats had been picked up on an open mic, Williams seemed embarrassed at her press conference, but quickly recovered to blame her opponent.
The issue was a ball Williams hit at the qualifier, Maria Jose Martina Sanchez.
Watching the incident on TV and later on video, it looks like the ball grazed Sanchez's right forehand, was slightly deflected, hit the frame on her racquet and bounced back on Williams' side of the net. Since the ball touched Sanchez, the point should have been forfeited to Williams.
But the ref didn't see it, which is understandable, and Sanchez didn't admit it, claiming later that she didn't feel anything and did feel the ball hit her racquet (which it did). Since the ball bounced twenty feet off her racquet, it clearly didn't hit her forearm hard.
Having been hit by tennis balls myself -- sometimes it hurts, sometimes I didn't feel anything even when I got a bruise -- I find Sanchez' explanation plausible. But even if Sanchez did know she should have foreited the point that is no excuse for Williams' loutish behavior.
Serena Williams is also the current leader in the Lifetime Dis-Achievement for Poor Sportsmanship Award. Her poor accomplishments are too lengthy to list here, but a few of the low-lights include:- During one Australian Open, Serena criticized the entire country of France of not supporting Bush43's invasion of Iraq, using a sarcastically bad French accent to mock them: "Vee are French, Vee make the love not war." Then she complained that it was unfair that French fans booed her.
- Repeatedly calling the entire city of Palm Springs and all its residents "racist" because some fans booed her and her sister when they pulled out of the final of a tournament there.
- Ridiculing Martina Hingis for being home schooled while Serena went to "Fashion School". Hingis speaks five languages and has the equivalent of an MBA from a Swiss business school. Serena designs her own tennis outfits.
- Withdrawing during matches more times than any player on the tour. She is often accused of tanking, because she quits during first round matches, or when she is behind. After she quit one match at the French Open claiming a leg injury she was reportedly seen dancing at a club that night.
- Accusing Justin Henin of "cheating" in a past French Open. Henin held up her hand asking for a time out; the chair didn't grant the time out, Williams tried to serve anyway, missed and then asked Henin to give her another serve. One wonders if Williams had hit an ace if she would have offered to serve over (actually, I don't wonder).
- Continually criticizing her opponents after loses, refusing to give them credit for their success.
- Making fun of Dinara Safina's number one ranking; it's one thing to disagree with how the rankings are done, and Williams can certainly make a case, it is something else to ridicule the person ranked ahead of you.
It would be tempting to attribute Serena's churlishness to her relatively hardscrabble background--except for the fact that she's got a sister who's also an elite player--and Venus comports herself relatively well.
Interesting that each of these poor sports offer up different flavors of same.
Nadal strikes me as thin-skinned, probably narcissistic.
LeBron is what the Russians call nyeculturny--roughly translated as "low class."
Michelle Larcher del Brito is a spoiled brat. I might actually enjoy seeing Serena play her.
And Serena is a bully.
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All of them show something observers of human nature have long noted: you find out more about character in defeat than in victory.
Look at how Sharapova behaves after a loss: she skips modeling gigs and the like and gets back on the court (unless she's injured); she never makes excuses; and she always gives opponents credit where due.
Serena is a winner. Sharapova is a champion. If either were officers, troops would follow the latter but not the former.
Posted by: Ehkzu | July 12, 2009 at 01:07 PM