Flashpoints

Hi there. Before you read any further, note that I won't be accepting comments on this post, because invariably some of you will want to challenge one or another part of it and we've endured enough controversy here about the subjects. But three things that I published during the Indian Wells tournament caused a stir, and I want to add a few thoughts on each just so you know how and what I was thinking. We'll start with the least important and work up from there.

1 - In an early post during the tournament, I wrote: Tsonga’s game degenerated; his focus softened to about what you get in a tacky soft-core porno movie. I think only one comment poster objected to this phrasing, and quite a few posters subsequently challenged his objection. It still matters to me.

You know, I struggled with the appropriateness of the phrasing myself. It did occur to me that we do have a number of young readers, but I decided that the comment was tame and probably humorously resonant to almost all readers, and not particularly corrupting for the others. I also believe that just because you can be vulgar, you don't have to be vulgar, which is why I sometimes double-check myself on these kinds of things. And, personally, I'm not really big on sex-based humor (partly because it's too easy to go there) unless it's so over-the-top that the sex part is the least of it.

So the is objection troubled me, less because of the validity of the poster's argument than because of the idea that someone out there in TennisWorld might have thought that the analogy just popped into my mind as a natural thing. Thanks to all of you who understood that it was intended as humor.

2 - In my Made of Struggle post, quite a few people called me out for characterizing Rafael Nadal as a "provincial" as if the only meaning of that word is pejorative. First of all, it would really take an exceptional circumstance for me to use that word pejoratively. That's because of the person I am, what my interests are outside tennis, and where and with whom I spend so much of my free time. "Provincial" is a vital  part of my life. But here's something weird. TW has many cosmopolitan readers. Those who make an a priori assumption that "provincial" is a pejorative probably believe down deep that it really is, and pity poor provincials. This is a common and insulting form of condescension, especially among the intellectually inclined.

Secondly, Does anyone really think I am so stupid that I would suggest that a kid who has accomplished so much, and travels the globe as much as Nadal does, is "provincial" in any literal sense of that word? Nadal is provincial in roughly the same way as anyone else who comes from a place off the great cosmopolitan map and can't or won't betray his roots. I've always sensed and admired that quality; if anything, I may be more guilty of romanticizing Jet Boy than anything else.

3 - In addition to the agitated comments unleashed by my Hangover post and the way I described the Serbian fans, I had a number of emails from angry readers, including many Serbs. One thing I couldn't figure out is why everyone brought Slobodan Milosevic into the discussion, until it dawned on me that it was my use of his first name as generic stand-in for the Serbs in the stands (read those last three words carefully, please).

For the record, I used "Slobodan" for two reasons: first, it was in much the same way that you might say, of Americans, "those average Joes." There is nothing offensive about that construction. Second, Slobodan Zivojinovic was a Serbian player (great guy: nickname, Bobo), so I thought it would make the choice more appropriate.

Many posters took my remarks about a handful of people who were pretty disruptive during a tennis match as an insult to the entire nation of Serbia and all its people. While I regret that they did not read closely enough to see that my remarks clearly were directed at a few dozen unruly fans, I reject the idea that I stereotyped or insulted anybody. And just as an FYI,  two Serbs seated close to the court, opposite the louts up top, were as vocal (and flag-draped) as anyone, albeit in an acceptable manner. I watched them frantically waving to the louts, trying to shut them up, when that crew was disrupting the men's trophy presentation with its tiresome bellowing.

As some posters noted, fans of players from many nations (including some with difficult pasts) have brought exuberance, enthusiasm and patriotic fervor to tennis matches (think Chile, during Rios's reign; or Brazil, during the heyday of Guga) without disrupting either player or infringing on the typical viewer's right to enjoy tennis under the prevailing values of the sport.

I was accused of "politicizing" the tennis, but in my view the opposite is true. The tennis match was politicized by those Serbian fans (recall that Kosovo banner), at the expense of the proceedings on the court. I just reported and commented on it.

A special thanks to those Serbs who understood this, and were sufficiently  large-of-spirit and courageous to say so at the Hangover. And also to those two Serbian dudes who tried to keep things cool.  I wish your country and people the best.

I'll have Crisis Center Miami post tomorrow. I'll be leaving for Key Biscayne on Tuesday of the second week, and posting from there the rest of the way.