I wasn’t present to witness the recent brawl at the public tennis courts in Bergen County NJ at Overpeck Park in Leonia, NJ but here is a second hand report I was told this week about it …
A Korean female teenager kept violating tennis etiquette by running onto an adjacent court to retrieve a mishit tennis ball. After her third or fourth time doing this, which was interrupting a doubles match, a Colombian adult tried explaining nicely to her the proper etiquette of when and how to retrieve her ball.
Suddenly, a male Korean teen exploded in rage at the polite Colombian’s sportsmanship lecture and hurled obscenities at him. His temper flared and then another woman tried to calm the teen down but the teen put his hand in her face as if to block listening to her. Her partner, a former D1 player at Georgetown University, then decided to get involved and approached the male teen who responded by smashing him with his tennis racquet seven or eight times in the head and back.
The male Korean teen then began alternating personalities, from a belligerent, violent juvenile delinquent, to a harmless kid, shouting F bombs to then saying, “I’m just a kid! I’m just a kid!”
The rest of the details are a blur except for some small details. A former MMA fighter eventually pinned the kid against the fence. Order was eventually restored. Until another senior player entered the court where the violence happened and just when it all seemed over, the 59 year old jumped on the back of the Korean kid.
Again, order was eventually restored or re-restored. The police never were called, there were no serious injuries except for some welts and bruises on the former Georgetown player’s head and back. And the tennis action was resumed.
I will try to get more details of this wild brawl at the tennis courts and add to the story…
