Over the weekend we saw 19 year-old Denis Shapovalov get automatically disqualified from his Davis Cup rubber against Great Britain.
Trailing two sets to none and having just lost his serve Shapovalov took a tennis ball out of his pocket and smacked it, meaning to send it out of the stadium, the problem was he hit it on a diagonal line straight from behind the baseline into the face of the chair umpire who was sitting on the sideline even with the net.
After several minutes of medical attention the chair umpire, Arnaud Gabas, was left with no choice but to automatically disqualify Shapovalov, handing the match to his British counterpart Kyle Edmund, which also gave the Brits a 3-2 win over the Canadians in the Davis Cup tie.
Now I feel for Shapovalov because it was obviously an accident but I also would hope that he learns his lesson and stops acting in such a way on the tennis court.
Athletes in all sports are considered role models to younger athletes yet they act in such a non role model way.
Children watch this and think it is okay to act like this and so they start acting that way too and the cycle will just continue forever.
But why are we putting up with this?
In sports there is a lot of frustration. I get that.
But it does not mean they have to slam tennis balls out of the stadium or smash their rackets on the court, or break their stick.
There are plenty of ways to get their aggression out on the field of play without acting childish.
In hockey there is a puck, so if an athlete is feeling frustrated why not just shoot that puck as hard as possible during the game?
Or in baseball try to hit the ball as far as ever before.
Or in tennis return a shot as hard as you can.
All too often we accept athletes acting childish because they are athletes and they deserve to be able to vent.
Which is fair, but acting childish on the field of play should not be okay for anyone and it starts at the top.
Could you imagine if it was your child who was snapping his baseball bat over his knee or was having a temper tantrum on the field of play?
It does not reflect very positively on the athlete.
How about at work.
What exactly would happen to you if you started breaking staplers and throwing temper tantrums at your place of work?
Would you still have a job?
So what makes it okay for an athlete to act that way at their place of work?
So we need to stop it.
The athletes at the top need to stop it.
