After beating Australian tennis’ bad boy Nick Kyrgios in round two of the Australian Open, world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev took a swipe at the “low IQ” crowd in Rod Laver Arena. Why? He thought they were booing him between serves. For those not familiar with tennis crowd etiquette, this is very bad behaviour. (Some might argue this is bad in any sport. Not me, but some.)
Does it matter that the crowd was chanting “siuuu”, a celebratory cry made famous by the footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, rather than booing? It might make some of the world-class players who have found themselves on the receiving end of the chant during this tournament sleep a little better at night, but the outcome is the same. It’s disrespectful and off-putting for players. Plus, as the widespread use of “Let’s go, Brandon” (now synonymous with “Fuck you, Biden”) in the United States shows, the words don’t really matter as long as everyone understands the intent.
So is the Australia Open crowd a particularly “low IQ” crowd? Maybe. More likely Australian tennis champion and commentator Dylan Alcott summed it up best when he basically said: it’s 9.15 — the crowd is drunk.
