Wimbledon 2021. The latest sports twitter spat had been another reminder not only of how high pressure Grand Slam tennis is, but of how much, off court, it has become a game of media and social media.
On Monday, 18-year-old Emma Raducanu, who had entered the tournament on a wild card but was wowing as a bright new hope, retired from her fourth round match after suffering breathing difficulties. What got the ball rolling across social media was John McEnroe’s response. He said, “I feel bad for Emma. It appears that it got a little bit too much, as is understandable, particularly what we’ve been talking about these last six weeks with Naomi Osaka not even here. How much can players handle? Hopefully she’ll learn from this experience.”
Bit of a duff shot?
You could call it that. Many thought given it wasn’t yet known what the cause of Raducanu’s breathing problems was, he made too many assumptions. Others thought mention of Osaka, who had pulled out of the French Open on mental health grounds after organisers refused to let her drop out of media interviews, insensitive.
However, still others, including Piers Morgan appeared to think he’d served up an ace. The comment bounced it way into the court of Morgan, who was probably sitting around waiting with a freshly strung twitter-racquet and he responded and he does, by lobbing a shot of clickbait, just clumsy enough to cause offence. “McEnroe told the truth,” he said. “Ms Raducuna’s [his spelling] a talented player but couldn’t handle the pressure & quit when she was losing badly”.
Classic Morgan, you mean? A bit like when he had a go at Osaka for pulling out of the French Open?
Ah, yes. Same sort of shot. Except that with Osaka, he went on and on, in a whole savage column. Words like petulant and “stupendous ego” were involved. Harry and Meghan were mentioned.
READ MORE: Andy Murray reignites Twitter spat with Piers Morgan over Emma Raducanu criticis
Advantage Morgan?
Only if you see setting social media on fire a victory. Mostly what happened was a flurry of support for Raducanu. Andy Murray, for instance, tweeted, “Think this is a very harsh take on the situation Piers. I think some of what he said was fair yes.. however the timing of it was a bit off considering nobody had any clue what her issue was injury/illness/breathings issues etc at the time of his comments.”
His mum, Judy, took a swing too: “Middle-aged men should generally avoid commenting on the physical or mental well-being of teenage girls. They will NEVER experience or fully understand that world.”
What about Raducanu? How did she score?
Well, I mean Twitter isn’t her game. It’s tennis, isn’t it? But if you’re talking about how she came across in her post-tournament interview with Sue Barker, the general verdict is she calmly aced it, and we can’t wait to see her in another major tournament.
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