It Would Be Scary…

Russian tennis player Mikhail Youzhny’s recent bizarre show of tantrum during a tennis match versus Nicolas Almagro was shocking, nay, terrifying even for the court officials who have witnessed how Youzhny bashed his racket against his head several times and ended up bloodied right in the middle of the court. I have seen Agassi’s temper before, but never in the history of professional tennis has this display of self inflicted violence occurred on the court.

Imagine how Almagro felt while trying to serve a match while at the same time seeing his opponent’s bloodied forehead. Even Youzhny was shocked and embarrassed as well as the trainers who had no choice but to stall the game since blood was dripping on the court.

Not to mention the three reporters who interviewed Youzhny were scared seeing the wound. Instead of asking the appropriate questions for their articles, one of them asked if Youzhny was alright. He also looked scared about what happened and his behavior claiming he has not done anything this violent before.

Sportsmanship is supposed to be the rule for all athletes, even for basketball players who play pretty physically. Seeing something like this happen in tennis is a pretty shocking thing.

What is scary though is if such behavior becomes a rule and not the exemption among young tennis players. It really smacks of immaturity and sportslessness if you can call it that. It’s a bad example to set for kids who were probably watching the game. The scenario gets to be not only scary but bizarre if kids who idolize these tennis players think of the violent act as pretty cool and start hitting themselves in the heads as well. I am not going to lie though, I would laugh a little bit at that. This moment for this player though definitely made him a bit scary.