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Should Grand Slams’ Social Media Accounts Be Impartial? The Australian Open’s Have Certainly Crossed the Line

If you’ve been following this year’s Australian Open the likelihood is that you’ve visited the official Australian Open page on a social media platform. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even just visiting the website, you’ve no doubt come across some of the disrespectful and biased pieces.

Firstly don’t get me wrong, I understand why the Australian Open loves the likes of the Williams sisters, Federer, and Nadal but there is a limit of professionalism and this year the Australian Open has crossed it. There would be too much to name and mention but

Just take a look at the tweets below, and these are only just a few tweets from after Federer beat Wawrinka in the semi-finals.

Just look at the language used, “HE’S DONE IT!” and “How did Federer find the magic…”. That first tweet more or less suggests that not only did the Australian Open want Federer to win but they’re thinking all of their followers did as well; if only they knew that not everyone following their Twitter account was following them for Federer. As for the second it’s not even true, there was no magic or anything similar. Anyone that watched the match would have clearly seen that at best Wawrinka was average and if anything gifted the final set away with a routine error when he had break point, only to then hit several more errors and a double fault in the next game to get broken. But of course when it comes to certain players no matter how they win it’s always due to them finding inspiration, magic, or whatever else there is. You can even go through the main pages for the accounts and you’ll see countless other tweets and posts like those if you really want.

Keep in mind that not only that, after the match Federer admitted he only took a medical time out because “he (Wawrinka) took one, maybe I can for a change,” The best part here is how despite saying this in his press conference, the Australian Open media accounts don’t seem to care or make anything out of it. Now imagine this was Andy Murray or Novak Djokovic who said this? Or heck, imagine the roles were reversed and Wawrinka won and said this afterwards, can you imagine the outrage it would have caused?

Then just look at this video (note the headline), which I personally find pretty disgusting. (Below is a transcript.)

“Reporter: Looked a little bit of a scrappy performance. A few more unforced errors, a few double-faults.

SERENA WILLIAMS: I think that’s a very negative thing to say. Are you serious?

Reporter: Just my observation.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Well, you should have been out there. That wasn’t very kind. You should apologize. Do you want to apologize?

Reporter: I just did. I’m sorry.

SERENA WILLIAMS: Thank you very much. That was a great performance. I played well. She’s a former top-10 player. The last time we played together was in the finals of a Grand Slam.”

So what happened here was a reporter gave his opinion on a match and Williams disagreed and asked him to apologize. Why should he? It’s his view on a match from what he saw; it’s subjective, not objective. What’s worse is how the Australian Open named this piece, “Serena Williams puts journalist in his place.” Talk about sucking up to one of the top players in the world when if anything, she was just as disrespectful back to the journalist. It’s no wonder why the Australian Open sided with Williams, but we can still expect better.

Moving on, I want to mention the “dream final” article and tweets for the Serena Williams vs Venus Williams final and the potential Federer vs Nadal final. Sure, they’re the finals a lot of people want to see, there’s no denying that. However then they headline the tweet for the latter with “We’ve been forced to endure eight long years. But now – just maybe – the wait might be over.” It’s like the Australian Open doesn’t understand tennis fans that support other players exist; it’s as if they assume everyone out there following this year’s Australian Open only cares about Federer, Nadal, and the Williams sisters. It’s pathetic. Yes, it may be the dream final to many but certainly not all. Furthermore, the disrespect to the other players–being forced to watch Djokovic, Murray, and Wawrinka in finals is something that the Australian Open has had to “endure”–is frankly disgusting.

https://twitter.com/AustralianOpen/status/824560011141533696

Furthermore, even though Wawrinka lost he was more than part of the equation; even despite being the 2014 champion here he was left without much praise and attention. Then we have Dimitrov taking on Nadal Friday. Much hasn’t been said about him because of course, the Australian Open is too busy “dreaming” and expecting a Federer vs Nadal final. It’s just disrespectful to the others involved and to their fans.

The last thing I want to mention is my favourite tweet of them all.

Yes, Federer is seen as “the King,” but when you have someone else such as Novak Djokovic who has won 6 Australian Open titles here and still doesn’t get the respect Federer and Nadal do from even official social media accounts of Grand Slams, something is very wrong.

Like I said before, I understand the love for these great names, and they’re truly great names. But often it gets to a point where it’s repetitive and outright disrespectful to other players and their fans, as if they are just there to fill in the number–and it needs to stop for future Slams.

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Jason Fernandes

Jason Fernandes

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