Tennis players and fans at the Aus Open were utterly dumfounded by crowds chanting a mysterious phrase that didn’t originate from tennis. During matches played on Wednesday, the crowd could be heard shouting “siuuu” — a callback to soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.
Now, I may not be the sportiest of gals, but even I know that tennis and soccer are very different ball games, so to speak.
The chant originated with Ronaldo back in 2013 and comes from “si”, the Spanish word for yes. Many thanks to Dora The Explorer for my knowledge there.
“I started to say ‘si’, it’s like ‘yes’, when I was in Real Madrid,” Ronaldo said in an interview.
“When we would win, everyone would say ‘siiiii’ and so I started to say it. I don’t know why, it was natural.”
But the phrase’s adoption by tennis fans has led to some of the stars of the Aussie Open to think they’re being booed, which is incredibly funny to me.
Scottish champ Andy Murray called out the crowd — who he thought was booing him — in one of his post-match interviews.
“After a few times it was like, no [they’re not booing] they’re doing that, I think it’s like ‘siuuu’ or something, that Ronaldo does when he scores,” he said.
“It was incredibly irritating.”
Absolutely roasted by Andy Murray there.
Our very own Nick Kyrgios also spoke about the siuuuu-ing, though in a classic Kyrgios fashion.
“They actually weren’t saying”boo”. It’s just a stupid [chant],” he said.
“Fuck, I can’t believe they did it so much. They were doing some Ronaldo thing. Ronaldo does it every time he scores.
“It’s like, I thought they were going to do it for like 10 minutes — they did it for two and a half hours. Like every point, I don’t know why. It was a zoo out there.”
Ah yes, my favourite type of zoo, where the animals yell at me while I try to perform high level sports in an extremely pressured situation.
???? SIUUUUU! @NickKyrgios
????: @AustralianOpen | #AusOpen | #AO2022
— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 18, 2022
Tennis star Nick Kyrgios after winning his match did the Cristiano Ronaldo "SIU" celebration.???? pic.twitter.com/gUz5sdjijA
— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) January 18, 2022
Kyrgios embraced the siuuu-ification of the Aus Open like a champ, but apparently quite a few players were upset by it.
Brit Liam Broady, who was beaten by Kyrgios, spoke about the vibes of the match calling it “absolutely awful”.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever walked onto a tennis court and been booed, which for me was a crazy experience,” he said.
French player Arthur Rinderknech also seemed to think he was being booed rather than siuu-ed by the crowd, according to Nine’s Wide World of Sports.
If this has taught us anything, it’s that I think we need more fun chants in sports. Perhaps we could do the rap from ‘Fergalicious’ at the cricket next, or the YMCA at the AFLW.
The post The Crowd At The Aus Open Keeps Chanting “Siuuu!!” At The Players & It’s Baffling The World appeared first on Pedestrian TV.
