David Penberthy: Compare Toby Greene’s treatment with the mollycoddling that passes for punishment in tennis

Tennis is kidding itself if it doesn’t recognise these brats for the problem they are, writes David Penberthy.

The Nick Kyrgios renaissance sadly appears to be over. In the backdraft of the 2019-20 bushfires, when Kyrgios led an inspiring and big-hearted appeal for those who had lost their homes, many of us reappraised our assessment of the explosive athlete in light of his previously unseen gracious conduct.

Lately it’s been all explosions and no grace. Kyrgios seems to have reverted to unpleasant type. His conduct in Miami this week was the latest in a depressing and embarrassing string of inexcusable blow-ups that have heaped further disgrace on the game.

It’s a game whose administrators don’t seem to grasp just how much public antipathy there is towards this type of conduct. It is also a game whose administrators fail to learn from other codes which recognise the sanctity of those officiating, not just out of decency, but out of what should be the painfully obvious recognition there can be no game without an umpire.

Compare and contrast the treatment of AFL footballer Toby Greene with the mollycoddling that passes for punishment in the tennis world.

At the start of last year’s finals campaign the GWS forward brushed against field umpire Matt Stevic. The contact was deemed intentional and Greene was initially suspended for three weeks over what the tribunal called “aggressive, demonstrative and disrespectful” conduct.

Even that penalty was not deemed sufficient by the AFL, who on appeal had the sentence doubled to a six-week ban, even though the umpire himself gave evidence favourable to Greene, saying he had not felt intimated by the encounter and believed it may have been an accident.

Nick Kyrgios of Australia slams his racket in his match against Jannik Sinner of Italy in Miami Gardens. Picture: Getty Images

Nick Kyrgios of Australia slams his racket in his match against Jannik Sinner of Italy in Miami Gardens. Picture: Getty Images

Despite that character reference from the putative victim of this nonviolent exchange, Greene had the book thrown at him. The penalty was doubled and he will not play until round six.

Compare and contrast this with the treatment meted out to German tennis star and world number three Alexander Zverev after he totally lost his mind playing doubles at the Mexican Open in Acapulco in February.

You will have seen the video where the 24-year-old German physically attacked the umpire’s chair while umpire Alessandro Germani was still sitting in it, smashing it three times with his racquet, almost hitting the umpire’s leg, and screaming at him that he was a “f---ing idiot”.

For this outrage, Zverev was merely ruled out for the remainder of that tournament and received what for him is the loose-change fine of $52,000.

But the ATP announced last month he was free to play on immediately, with the review of his conduct fully suspending his ban of eight weeks at ATP tournaments, as well as suspending all further fines.

When it comes to sending a signal, this punishment was as powerful as my second serve. Lucky Zverev was back on the court in record time, playing in California the following fortnight, and in Miami this week at the same time our Nick was making a pork chop of himself.

Nick Kyrgios of Australia carries his broken racquet. Picture: AFP

What is it about tennis and its ability to attract some of the most irritating people ever to grace the earth? Perhaps in part it is because it is an individual sport, where players are almost at war with themselves.

Nothing can excuse or condone it in my view. It remains a complete mystery how a game that has brought us the likes of Nadal and Federer and Rafter and Newcombe can attract in seemingly equal measure a bunch of loathsome halfwits who are the living embodiment of entitlement, perhaps on account of being told they are God’s chosen ones by their uncritical parents from the earliest of ages.

Tennis is kidding itself if it doesn’t recognise this for the problem it is. Many of its greats are now openly derisive of the manner in which the game they love is being managed.

As Pam Shriver wrote on Twitter about the Zverev incident and its aftermath: “Name another sport that would not protect its officials who have been physically attacked and intimidated by a competitor by serving a probation vs a suspension? What am I missing?”

The AFL even fines coaches for making any kind of complaint in their media engagements about the umpiring.

Compare that with Kyrgios after his Miami madness where he claimed he was the victim of the whole affair and it was umpire Carlos Bernardes who should have been disciplined.

“He’s not even going to get a slap on the wrist for his dreadful umpiring performance today,” Kyrgios said after the match.

German Alexander Zverev hits the umpire's chair with his racket after the end of his Mexico ATP Open 500 doubles tennis match in Acapulco, Mexico. Picture: AFP

“Like, he was horrendous. But the ATP won’t do anything about him. There will be no bad articles on him. He will just show up in the next event, and everyone just forgets how bad that was today from him.

“But again, I will have to deal with the negativity, I will have to deal with the bad comments, my girlfriend has to deal with the bad comments, my team has to deal with the bad comments.”

Diddums do, Nick. One of the key reasons a bloke like Rafael Nadal doesn’t have to worry about dealing with bad comments is he doesn’t behave badly. The solution to this all seems obvious I would have thought.

The fact tennis doesn’t see any of this as a problem threatens its ongoing popularity. If this summer’s mens’ doubles tournament at the Australian Open was meant to be a watershed moment for the marketing of the game, I know plenty of people for whom it had the reverse effect.

The hollering, the swaggering, the deliberate use of bad language and the deliberate misuse of the English language (We done good out there, et cetera) … you can actually feel your brain cells disappearing watching this macho nonsense.

No pun intended but the game has become a protection racket for spoiled brats. It ignores that reality at its peril.