Loss of civility is debasing the West

Novak Djokovic waves to fans from a balcony of the Adelaide hotel where he is completing his quarantine. Picture: AFP

Tennis and cricket players once embodied the elite sportsmanship that was the envy of lesser mortals. The greatness of sport was reflected not only in superior athleticism, but a culture in which etiquette and self-restraint were norms. Good manners were maintained under pressure in conditions most would find intolerable. It was the combination of unnatural vigour and extraordinary mastery of emotions that separated the good from the great in sport. That was then.

Tennis players who arrived for the Australian Open found themselves in hard lockdown after a flight attendant tested positive for COVID. A two-week quarantine period is not a pleasant prospect, but you might expect world-class athletes to be capable of self-control and a little perspective. After all, they are adults, not children.

They are worshipped as heroes and amply rewarded for coming to Australia. Players who bow out in the first qualifying round will walk away with $25,000. Those who lose in the first round of the main draw pocket $100,000. A quarter-finalist makes $525,000; semi-finalists $850,000. The final runner-up earns $1.5m and the champion $2.75m. Tennis players can spare us the pity party from hotel quarantine. Perspective is often gained in retrospect, long after the damage is done. Public sympathy was with players until they showed ire-inspiring lack of empathy for the risks a COVID outbreak would pose to the economy and public health. Novak Djokovic bore the brunt of the backlash after he issued a list of requests from players to improve quarantine conditions. He later tried to explain himself in an apology online. But there was worse to come from lower-ranked players.

An example of the poor state of sports culture was found in the hotel room of former tennis hopeful Bernard Tomic. As a child, he was considered a prodigy of sorts, but it did not last. In 2017, he was fined for unsportsmanlike behaviour at Wimbledon after he admitted to faking an injury to take time out during a match. In 2019, he was fined again for failing to perform to a professional standard after bowing out of a first-round match in less than an hour. His girlfriend made videos of herself from quarantine saying much about nothing. She complained about having to wash her own hair and the prospect of passing stool in a shared bathroom so early in their relationship. She had been playing video games for hours.

There is an alternative. Players could use time in quarantine constructively. How about enrolling in a short educational course?

Next to the perpetual grunters, players who throw on-court tantrums are the most annoying part of the game. Nick Kyrgios sometimes expresses regret for his behaviour but tries to rationalise it, too. In an interview with the ABC’s Reputation Rehab, he was asked whether tennis players were judged more harshly for their behaviour than other sportspeople. Kyrgios thought so because tennis is “an old traditional sport” and there were microphones everywhere. He said: “It’s the culture of tennis … it’s supposed to be a nice, white gentleman sport … so seeing someone coloured, like myself, go out there, be different and be successful, it’s not easy to see at times.”

People cheer Kyrgios whenever he performs to the best of his abilities, irrespective of the final score. Tennis spectators want to see sporting excellence, courage under fire and civil conduct on court. Roger Federer has been booed by crowds on the rare occasions he has displayed unsportsmanlike conduct. So, too, Djokovic, Tomic and countless other players with white skin. Race has nothing to do with public contempt for loutish sportsmen.

The culture of civility common to sports such as cricket and tennis was challenged by players such as John McEnroe, who rose to fame in the 1970s and 80s. It was the same decade that featured violent street revolutions, left-wing terrorist attacks on authorities such as police and marches against Western culture on campus. The decline in civility was celebrated as a type of youthful rebellion against tradition. As the years passed, the political practice of disinhibition was decoupled from politics and became a consistent feature of Western society.

The debasement of culture is evident in the erosion of basic etiquette and good manners, the rules for social interaction that make it more pleasurable. Bad manners have the opposite effect. Each of us can recount instances of people reading their phones during a conversation or having a heated argument in public. There is the daily storm of anti-social media where amateur trolls compete with common misanthropes to be the gossip most foul. There are numerous banks and telecommunication companies that spend millions on social justice PR while ignoring the basic needs of their customers. And there is the institutionalised contempt for civility found in the organised suppression of dissent.

Good manners sustain the interpersonal civility so vital to democratic societies. In the days of wrath, anger is a powerful temptation. In the days of old, when the Earth was young and full of hope, the ancients’ cure for wrath was patience. Before hurling abuse or slamming rackets, tennis players should pause to reflect on the extraordinary blessing of being young, fit and paid to do what they love.