A lot of tennis people and pundits are outraged with the antics of Alize Cornet yesterday in her match with Tatjana Maria which she won 63 67 64 with some assistance from apparently faked cramping and unfair medical timeouts and leg massages. Sure, it was not the greatest display of sportsmanship by Cornet but all of this drama is NOTHING compared to what Connors McEnroe and Nastase used to do.
I say Give Cornet a break! She turned a ho-hum match into a spectacle that we will be talking about for weeks, months or years. I actually truly hope Cornet continues with her controversial antics in her future matches. Controversy sells and controversy is entertaining theater to watch – and it will also provoke her opponents to counteract these shenanigans in some way. Grudge matches with tension are the very best matches to watch because of the unpredictability factor and because the match can do down a route we’ve never seen before. Cornet drama is simply fantastic theater – and a helluva lot more entertaining than watching a Raonic or Venus match.
Just remember that Nadal and Djokovic were notorious stallers earlier in their careers. For those that want to finger point blame perhaps you should rebuke those two great champions who have shown the #nextgen by their examples that stalling in any way, shape, or form can be productive – and the difference – to winning a stressful, close hard fought tennis match. Whether it’s illegal or not is up to the officiating authorities.
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catherine bell · May 27, 2016 at 1:06 pm
Is tennis, or any sport, apart from wrestling, about fake drama or is it about skill ?
And in the days of McEnroe, Connors etc we didn’t have MTOs, toilet breaks and all the other ways you can basically cheat now. I saw plenty of their matches but nothing like the rubbish Cornet, a mediocre player IMO, served up.
I hope her next opponent takes her out.
Scoop Malinowski · May 27, 2016 at 1:27 pm
mcenroe used stall tactics to freeze opponents – so did nadal and djokovic who I saw use two timeouts in the fifth set to beat monfils at us open in five sets when both were teens – djokovic was laying on the court by the service box after a long point and i thought he was having a heart attack – after about fifteen minutes djokovic got up and won the match – we all saw nadal call timeouts when losing in majors and then go out and run around like a maniac – NO SIGN of any injury – what Cornet did is similar – I didn’t see her match just the highlights – it’s the same stall tactics just in a different disguise imo – Cornet is a quality player – has been ranked around fifteen in the world and she has some big wins – I interviewed her for a biofile once – such a nice sweet girl off court – obviously a cunning tigress on the court –
Bryan · May 30, 2016 at 2:38 pm
That Cornet train wreck was sure a buzz item. LOL when she feigned to not understand the controversy after.
Mac may have forced delays but but not via medical time outs. He did it by starting arguments and berating officials or opponents. So while that might not have been sportsmanlike, he took responsibility for it. Nowadays people try for delays but don’t take responsibility and pretend like they’re not manipulating the rules. Don’t lie, be upfront like Mac did and take responibility.
Scoop Malinowski · May 30, 2016 at 5:54 pm
Bryan if there was no shot spot and line calling was like the old days I’m sure we would see a lot more of mcenroe-esque arguing and berating happening 🙂 I think we all miss that – except Charlton Heston who was so offended by mcenroe’s behavior that he considered dis-associating himself from the sport of tennis according do gardnar mulloy’s book – True story 🙂
Andrew Miller · June 5, 2016 at 6:05 am
Cornet is a unique player to watch. One of few to turn pouting into victories. Goes to show that opponents respond to antics. If you play the sport you see everything under the sun! One guy I played, I swear he looked ready to pass out in the third game of the match. But he was acting and quickly routed me over the next fifty minutes. Fresh as can be. I was stunned.
Scoop Malinowski · June 5, 2016 at 9:08 am
Andrew there are a lot of deceivers in this world – wolves in sheep clothing – you have to be very wise to be able to identify what is carefully concealed within – tennis helps us learn to detect who the serpents are – I played a guy who was singing yes singing in the warMup to act like he was so confident that I was like a walk in the park – another guy played the dead exhausted card down 0-3 in the third and then won four in a row but I won the last two – fake injuries fake tired you see it all in tennis – we see it all in life too in the world too – tennis is a good Metaphor for life –
Andrew Miller · June 5, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Sure do see it all Scoop. I don’t blame Cornet and her opponent should have been ready. Roddick once handed his racquet to a ball boy in his epic match with Younes El A…. Spelling and Younes did too…and lost the match soon thereafter, taken out of his rhythm. Roddick quickly lost his next match to Schuller? Forgot his name, good German player.
It’s hard to experience but fool me once fool me twice. With money etc on the line, just not surprised.
Scoop Malinowski · June 5, 2016 at 6:37 pm
Andrew: Vijay Armritraj did it also and may have been the first – he was losing badly to mcenroe at UCLA with Johnny Carson in the first row watching and while getting killed he suddenly have his racquet to Here’s Jooohnny – Vijay said mcenroe was far from amused by it – the anecdote will be in “Facing mcenroe’ – so the move of stalling by giving the racquet to a fan or someone by the losing player is a calculated trick to break the rhythm of the winning player –
Andrew Miller · June 5, 2016 at 6:49 pm
Scoop, in Cornet’s case I think there’s a reason she’s the better player. She uses the whole court – the fans, the emotions of the opponent, everything to win. She’s small, not Amanda Coetzer-small but small nonetheless, and probably has to use all she has to beat younger or faster or taller opponents. Personally I like Cornet’s game when she’s playing well, but I wonder about her prep given that she goes into a lot of matches and falls behind early, or even needs a set just to warm up. That to me smacks of bad prep.
But, that’s the sport. Some players prep well, some don’t, and some just use whatever they can on the day to make it happen. Great sport.