Sir, – This week, a tennis player lost a first-round match at the US Open, as have dozens of other players, but in the course of the match she smashed a good tennis racquet to pieces. There will be other players yet to smash more racquets.
The Christmas Day voice of my grandmother, “Save the wrapping paper”, told me to not waste anything, so racquet destruction seems so indulgent and petulant. The unwanted racquet could have been donated to a charity.
A small fine is meaningless, and the racquet would have been provided by a sponsor, so what can be done to encourage better behaviour and more positive role modelling?
The simplest answer would be make her, or any of the other racquet smashers, play the rest of the set with the broken racquet. It wouldn’t take long for this offence to stop.
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It would be easier, of course, if these players just grew up. – Yours, etc,
DENNIS FITZGERALD,
Melbourne,
Australia.