ATP/WTA: Verdasco, Sabalenka and Co.: Forgetting the good nursery

So there’s the next one: After Fernando Verdasco’s much discussed towel fail, Aryna Sabalenka also noticed negatively this week when she apparently wasn’t fast enough to get a new bottle of water and just threw her empty bottle towards the ball child. ATP and WTA must finally intervene – a comment by Florian Goosmann.

After Verdasco, this is the next case of “Does it really have to be?” Because what Aryna Sabalenka afforded in Beijing once again did not cast a good picture on the spoiled professionals of the present time – nor on the ATP or WTA.

Colleague Jörg Allmeroth has already put the towel thing in a nutshell – why the player organisations don’t finally oblige their pros to take care of their sweaty and rotten towels themselves (yes, some pros blow their noses with them too!) is still a mystery.

Verdasco and Sabalenka are only two of a few professionals who apparently see ball children as “girls for everything”. The young millionaires are spoiled – and some have either not even learnt the good manners or have long forgotten them. Cases like the above not only cast a bad light on tennis, they should be punished. And: ATP and WTA should urgently appeal for respect in their introductory courses for professionals or engage veteran professionals on topics such as etiquette and manners.

Regardless of the lack of respect that some actors show their subjects, they should perhaps put themselves in the shoes of the kids: Ball kids do their job because they want to be close to their stars; it’s a slap in the face for them to be treated so disrespectfully. After all, there are, examples Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal, praiseworthy exceptions – and when one hears Günter Bresnik or uncle Toni talking about education, one quickly realizes why.

The whole situation would also be a case for the NextGen tournament in Milan, which would be extremely easy and inexpensive to solve: screwing a towel hook to the gang does not cost the world (and would reduce unnecessary towelling after each point). Furthermore, it should be reasonable for the professionals to dispose of their empty bottles themselves in the nearby trash can and supply themselves with new drinks from the cooler.

Judy Murray summed up all the absurdity of these days in a nutshell: ball children should take care of the balls – and the professionals should take care of their stuff.

Oh yeah, making a mistake in the heat of the moment happened to all of us. Which would be nice: an apology. There was nothing to hear or read about Verdasco here. On the contrary, he blocked the Twitter channel that had circulated the video, which was unpleasant for him. Nothing of the sort came from Sabalenka either.

But apologies are the exception anyway, to look (or not) at perhaps the greatest of all times: Also #ThisMama Serena Williams gave herself after her embarrassing US Open appearance to the disadvantage of winner Naomi Osaka and referee Carlos Ramos defiantly instead of repentantly. That’s too bad.