As we discussed yesterday, Tennys Sandgren is an Alt-Right douchebag. It feels good to say that out loud, because it feels like there are a lot of people making a concerted effort to normalize and excuse Sandgren’s sketchy words, beliefs, tweets, etc. There are even a lot of American players trying to defend him, although to be fair, I’m not sure many of them know the long, detailed history of Sandgren’s anti-gay, transphobic, racist, neo-Nazi sympathies.
Sandgren made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before he lost in straight sets to the first Korean player to ever make it this far into a slam, Hyeon Chung (sidenote: I’m sort of in love with Chung and his game). Before that QF, Sandgren deleted nearly every tweet he ever sent or retweeted, because that’s how much he believes in what he’s saying, I guess. After he lost, he gave an eyerolly statement to the media which was basically a word salad of churchy dumbf–kery and Ayn Rand misquotes. As I said yesterday, Serena Williams burned Sandgren with a two-word tweet as his QF match got started. And this is is what she wrote hours after he lost:
@TennysSandgren I don't need or want one. But there is a entire group of people that deserves an apology. I cant look at my daughter and tell her I sat back and was quiet. No! she will know how to stand up for herself and others- through my example. ✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/im2NhoMdN4
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) January 24, 2018
I’ve been thinking a lot about Serena in her maternity-leave absence from the tour, as I think many other players have been thinking about her too. There are a lot of women on the WTA tour who miss her and understand what she means to the game, means to the tour, means to the entire sport, means to women athletes around the world, and what she means to women of color.
Do men understand what Serena means though? I think someone like Roger Federer understands what Serena means to the sport. Djokovic understands. Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka understand. All of the top guys know her and love her. But the American men… I’m not so sure. Her generation of American men included the likes of James Blake, Andy Roddick, the Bryan Brothers and Mardy Fish. Only the Bryan Bros are still on the tour now, the other dudes have retired (and they were all good friends with Serena too). The younger guys, the Tennys Sandgrens of the tour, do they “get” what a huge call-out this is? Serena is basically telling the tennis establishment that these shenanigans will not stand, that you cannot spend years as a homophobe, a racist, a bigot and a neo-Nazi and then just suddenly try to whitewash your image because you start to win. I f–king dare reporters to ask Sandgren about Serena’s callout at his next event. PLEASE DO THAT.
Also: Serena Williams will be back on the tour in about a month. She’s playing Fed Cup this year!
Photos courtesy of Getty.
You go Serena.
She’s right, of course. Sandgrens should do more than apologize.
Serena’s decision to call him out reminds me of a story Oprah tells about Maya Angelou, where Maya once had a party at her house, she heard a racist remark or joke from across the room and said “I will not allow it in my house!” Maya kicked the man (I’m assuming he was a big deal) right out of her house, in front of everyone. That really stuck with me.
Boss!
Why do you think people like Federer and Đoković understand and some American players don’t? What is the reason?
yeh i’m confused about that too. I’m not sure Đoković understands much…didn’t he argue against equal pay for women and something something they have periods and hormones *eyeroll*
Did he really? He’s quite big in my area so he’s in tje news all the time, he seems like a great guy usually.
Yeah he has on multiple occasions unfortunately, usually making the argument that women are either more emotional on court (lol) and therefore less consistent or that the men generate more ticket sales and television interest. He currently seems to be trying to unionise the ATP to fight for a bigger cut of the revenue at slams, but hasn’t included the women’s tour- Martina Navratilova and Judy Murray have both come out and said a player’s union is a good idea, but that it has to be a joint enterprise or the women will get screwed over.
No Raymond Moore said the thing about hormones and periods. Đoković thinks men should be paid more because “the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches” and tv viewers.
I don’t think he is right – but don’t put the hormones and periods thing on him!
It was Djokovic who mentioned hormones, I remember the press conference where he said it: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/21/novak-djokovic-indian-wells-equal-prize-money-tennis
Djokovic did indeed mention hormones. He said the following:
It’s knowing what they have to go through with their bodies, and their bodies are much different than men’s bodies. They have to go through a lot of different things that we don’t have to go through. You know, the hormones and different stuff, we don’t need to go into details. Ladies know what I’m talking about.
Full interview can be read here: http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=118009
Can’t speak to the Federer/Djokovic part, but the current crop of American Male players likely wouldn’t understand because they are, with few exceptions, as useless of human beings as they are at playing tennis. Sandgren is far from the only alt-righter in that group and the rest will also be outed and questioned on a large scale if they are ever fortunate enough to get as lucky with a draw as Sandgren did (because they certainly won’t ever get to a Slam QF based on their skill).
I know Djokovic has some convoluted thoughts about female athletes, true, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Djokovic respects the sh-t out of Serena and understands 100% what she means to the sport.
I’m not sure if the same can be said about the younger American men, at all.
No, the American players do understand his history. It’s just that the likes of Isner and Harrison are all Trump supporters and agree with him. It’s part of the reason why I appreciate Andy Murray so much- so many of his ATP colleagues are colossal douchebags and the ones that aren’t are still either oblivious or indifferent to the inequalities in the sport.
It’s true american male players understand his history very well and they’re all in agreement. Some of them used to gloat when Serena would lose. Harrison even mocked her grunt and accused her of gamesmanship when she played against his sister in law.
As if Serena needs to cheat to beat this mediocrity.
Sure Tennys, have your free speech, but know that what you’re really doing is showing the world what a weak, hateful excuse for a human being you are. You’re entitled to your opinion, and the world is entitled to call you out for it.
Anyone who believes Pizzagate and Alex Jones is a colossal idiot as well as racist, sexist, etc.
The validation of these right wing nut jobs and their ridiculous ramblings is probably the worst thing the internet has done.
Bingo.
Wow, he’s gross.
Awww. We’ve really missed having Serena here this year. That means an entire year to wait for the next Australian Open! This Sandgren bloke needs a good kick in the cods. I’d like just one reporter with some intestinal fortitude to ask him about Serena’s callout, too. None will, though. Sandgren is not worth losing their job. Yoo hoo! Ronan Farrow! Where aaaaaare you?
On a side note… I’m still in hospiral and yesterday was in for my fourth surgery in 4 weeks, so flaked out before Celebitchy stories appeared. I only got to read the Denzel Washington story tonight. I saw this bit: “…because there’s often an anthropological vibe to it, like the Brits are studying the Americans for clues about their politics, thoughts on racism, and more.” I loved it! I don’t know about the Brits, but this is exactly why I love coming on Celebitchy. Thank you, everyone.
Get well soon! Ouch 4 surgeries.
Get well soon, Annakist
Djokovic doesn’t understand at all. Also sooo happy for Simona I think I want her to win more than Caro.
Leadership. Thank you, Serena.
Isner was defending him on twitter, I find that super disappointing.
The tweets between Andy Murray and Serena were lovely, commiserating over crying babies and having to miss the Australian Open. Plus Andy’s “#askandy” twitter session when up was up all night with jet lag was hilarious.