I will admit that I don't know a great deal about tennis. I mean, I know how the game works and what not, that much is quite easy to understand. What I don't know is the rankings, the importance of the tournament, or even why everyone has to wear all white outfits at Wimbledon.
I did however watch the Australian Open men's final yesterday and what a spectacle it was.
I was sitting with a guy who follows tennis the same way I do UFC so I was getting a lot of "expert" information such as the fact that Medvedev is the true number 1 rank in the world at the moment despite the (4) next to his name and this is based on the win streak that he is on but rankings are all messed up this year because of Covid restrictions and the cancellation of events and matches.
Daniil Medvedev is Russian and although he started strong, he started to get increasingly frustrated as the game went on and Novak Djokovic won the match in 3 straight sets and appeared to be on a completely different level as far as ability is concerned. Daniil's frustration reached an apex when he smashed and broke one of his rackets after a failed rally
This is not why this guy has become my favorite tennis player though, it is because of the way that even though he was very displeased with his own performance he could be seen putting his hands up to encourage the crowd to cheer, even when it was for points that he lost. He seemed to be a pretty fantastic person even though he was in the process of being a bit embarrassed in a final after not losing a single match in over 20 appearances.
The thing that really did it for me was during the award presentation when he addressed the crowd and the world and appeared to be about as gracious in defeat that I can imagine a person being that just lost as badly as he had just done moments ago
Of course, the over a million dollars AUS that he gets for losing probably helps to ease the pain a bit but he regaled the crowd with stories about how Djokovic was kind to him many years ago back when he himself was ranked 600th in the world and Novak was the world's current number 1. He retold a story about how they met in I believe it was Monaco and how Novak was very approachable and kind to all the other players despite at that time being in a completely different league than the lower ranked opponents.
When Novak's turn on the microphone came, he returned the favor and gave words of inspiration to Medvedev and how it would be nice if Daniil could hold off being the best in the world for just a few more years, for his own sake. The crowd laughed, the room I was in laughed, and everyone left that match feeling as though the Russian (who was extremely well spoken in English BTW) is probably a really nice person... and in sports that is always a great way to win me over.
I haven't really ever been terribly concerned about tennis; it is one of those sports that I will look at the headlines but not really ever care enough about to tune in live. This will change in the future because of the way that Medvedev performed yesterday and especially because of the way that he handled the post-game speech that perhaps he didn't even want to do.
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why not be friendly?
This level of sportsmanship is touching to me and we could use a lot more of it in a world of sports where it seems egos and money get in the way of people simply being human. Competition is great and all and sports fans like me around the world love the intensity of rivalry, but it is moments of empathy like this that touch me right in the feels and I don't think I am alone when I say that I will be looking for this man in the future and hope he can continue to improve and eventually become the true world number 1.