Viktoria Komova, 2009 Yokohama Junior International

Rebeca Andrade reacts to becoming the 2024 Paris Olympic champion on floor.

this recent tendency of tennis fans to bring up zverev's domestic abuse, usually as a response to or in defence of another player being criticised for something tennis-related to redirect any criticism faced by that player towards zverev, really irks me. the idea is that zverev deserves more hate than [insert tennis player] because domestic abuse is a far more serious act than whatever "unsportsmanlike" thing that player had done. and despite the popularity of such statements, i'd like to point out you have to make 2 assumptions in order for it to be internally coherent: 1) there exists some kind of conversion rate between on vs. off court offenses that allows them to be calculated as arithmetic to compare how "problematic" ppl are and for actions that occur on and off the court to be judged under one singular standard rather than be considered with different nuances, and 2) and that there is no functional distinction in the nature and impact of criticism that comes from tennis fans in online communities vs. professional sports journalism and punditry if they operate under the same platform and umbrella of "tennis social media". you can disagree, but i don't think either assumption is true.

there is a massive divide when it comes to sentiments towards zverev between online tennis communities and actual journalists/pundits. the vast, vast majority of tennis fans that exist in these online spaces agree that zverev should not be playing and dislike him both as a tennis player and as a person. i can go on and on abt how coddled and whitewashed zverev's image peddled by (most) journalists and pundits and commentators is, but the disconnect is jarring to say the least. this is why i find it confusing when ppl say zverev needs more hate without clarifying from who - the fans? or the media? bc one of those answers is clearly out of touch with reality and the other one is v v true so. lol.

ik not many of u were watching tennis in 2022 but i think rg22 was a big turning point in how these fan spaces discussed zverev; his injury forcing him out from the tour for an extensive period of time allowed fans to engage with tennis in a way that allowed them to ignore the (depressing) implications of him being permitted to play in the first place, and 'az hate' kind of shifted from throwing (deserved imo) vitriol at everything he said and did to simply pretending like he didn't exist, which worked pretty well for a while, until he returned and fans had to reckon with his existence in tennis again. and some returned to str8forward hating, but i think the majority felt very very resigned and decided that the best way to move forward was to refuse to engage with any content featuring zverev, discuss anything he said or any of his matches - an engagement boycott of sorts that could force tennis media/official bodies to concede that promoting zverev would not be profitable, both financially and from a standpoint of growing the tennis community. this is my extremely long winded hypothesis for how anybody could think that zverev has somehow been escaping criticism from tennis fans, but i'm inclined to say it's just fandom-brained behaviour and also miscommunication from the mistake of lumping together tennis fans online and tennis journalism/punditry under "tennis social media" when the distinction between them is absolutely crucial to make clear in this context.

it's just so weird to me that so many ppl's reactions to their faves being clowned on by tennis fans for something that happened on-court - a key feature of any sports fandom, mind you - is to say 'how curious! you accuse my fave of gamesmanship / unsportsmanlike conduct / etc when ZVEREV literally exists!' like the two are related in any way and (inadvertently!) drawing an equivalence between an offence (that may not have even happened) in a game of tennis and multiple extremely credible accusations of domestic abuse. sorry, but arguing about sports-related stuff like gamesmanship or doping conspiracies is extremely normal sports fan behaviour! bringing up someone else's history of domestic abuse is not the bulletproof clapback that will silence all the haters in this context, like at all! treating the differences in fan reactions to on vs off court offenses as if it's a double standard assumes that they are the same kind of situation - which they are not, like at all!

intentional or not (and lbr 99% of the time it's not intentional - most of the fans saying this are women existing under the patriarchy etc etc), turning domestic abuse into a gotcha point for stan wars like this is the kind of rhetoric that undermines the gravity of intimate partner abuse imo and is a pretty insensitive thing to say either way, the same reason i've found those 'xyz player did it for the girls!!!' and other "'rat exterminator"' memes quite distasteful.

not to mention how it kinda blames tennis fans (and as i'm abt to point out, a lot of female tennis fans) for zverev not being sanctioned by atp for his abuse. like come on now. do you think wta fans on their women's tennis fan accounts are wasting precious time they could've spent quote-tweeting images of zverev with rat emojis by talking about women's tennis instead? is it the fault of igaryna stans being salty that neither of their faves won the ao and taking it out on each other that commentators and traditional media outlets refuse to bring up the accusations against zverev? is it the fault of chronically online tennis fans and players expressing whatever grievance or conspiracy they have towards sinner's doping case that zverev continues to be institutionally protected by the governing bodies of tennis and tennis punditry? obviously not, so why is 'zverev is a domestic abuser' considered a coherent rebuttal to 'your fave may or may not have acted a little weird that one time on court perhaps' or 'your fave tested positive for doping'?

criticise journalists, the governing structures and councils within the atp, affiliated social media accounts that make content w zverev, commentators and pundits all you like, and i'll heartily agree with those critcisms - but i really don't believe in the sentiment that zverev will be sanctioned or that his victims will be able to find peace only if tennis fans online all just decide to hate on him enough (as if most of them don't already despise him anyway) and never criticise anything or anyone else in tennis (as if they can't hate on more than one thing at a time) bc it turns the issue into a problem of "hate" or "support" from individuals and neglects examining the systemic failures that led to this in the first place. organised action directed towards those in power instead of misplacing frustration onto random tennis fans on the internet is a far more productive use of everyone's time, at least if ur on a platform where ur able to communicate directly with relevant figures or officially affiliated accounts.

so bela karolyi died,

Zheng Qinwen (郑钦文) becomes the first Chinese tennis player in history to win an Olympic gold medal in singles after defeating Donna Vekić in two straight sets (6–2, 6–3) on Court Philippe-Chatrier at Stade Roland Garros, 3rd August, 2024. This ends China's twenty-year wait for an Olympic gold medal in tennis since the women's doubles victory in 2004.

Qiu Qiyuan of China wins silver in the uneven bars final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, scoring a huge 15.500.

"Did they show me laughing after I fell?"

17-year-old Kaylia Nemour of Algeria wins gold in the uneven bars final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She becomes the first-ever athlete to win an Olympic medal in gymnastics for the entire continent of Africa.

2024 OG | Quals: AA 88.597

Italy at this beam finals

this is quickly becoming a beacon the therapy dog stan account but LOOK AT HIM!! that's the face of a dog who knows he has already contributed more to usag than tom forster. get him to paris fr