Novak Djokovic is actually the man behind the Batman mask and Roger Federer is the stunt
double of Ryan Reynolds.
Haha, just kidding!
Guys here are some stories you may never have heard about some of your favorite tennis players.
And don't worry I'm not trying to prank you this time.
These are all real.
Starting this one off is our beloved Roger Federer
ROGER FEDERER:
In 2015, king Roger came under intense backlash from his Pakistani fans as he faced many threats
online from those he had hurt when he chose to support the Indian Cricket team over the
Pakistani team, two arch rivals in the game of cricket which produces often, one of the
most heated sport rivalries in history.
A rivalry that still goes beyond sport to touch on the cultural, political and religious.
What happened seemed simple and innocent but his fans from Pakistan weren't taking any
of it.
The Swiss maestro had only posted a picture of himself holding a blue Indian jersey with
the hashtag, #bleedblue and Pakistan took offense.
Those who have supported him with so much candor and passion felt betrayed and threatened
to take down all the posters of Roger they had in their rooms and phones.
In an Indian newspaper, known as the Express Tribune, another diehard fan of Federer wrote
an editorial titled: "Dear Federer, why would you choose to bleed blue?"
It wasn't Federer's fault mind you; the man just loves India and has for long been an
open admirer of their culture but the Pakistanis didn't see it like that, one writer even went
as far as calling him a sell-out.
That writer was Sulaiman Ijaz and he wrote:
"I did an informal poll of the dozen biggest Pakistani Roger fans I know.
All very serious fans, mind you.
Two of them were not bothered by the picture.
But 10 of the 12 felt seriously hurt or betrayed.
Six of those 10 said you had acted “like a sell-out” and have stopped supporting
you altogether"
Maybe these fans were all just overreacting; besides they were never hurt when Federer
openly said he loved Indian food and would like to eat naan bread during his IPTL tour
or when he asked his Indian fans to take him on a tour through Indian by photoshopping
him in different parts of their country.
Nevertheless, their hurt is understood because this was the cricket world cup which commanded
over 1 billion viewers between India and Pakistan which completely trumps over the worldwide
viewership of the Super Bowl that draws only 160 million and to have had their favorite
tennis player pick their arch rivals over them would have really stung.
But as Pakistani fans of Roger Federer tended to their wounded hearts, Maria Shaporava,
until her retirement, maintained her title over aircrafts all over the world.
SERENA WILLIAMS:
Could Serena Williams be a gangster or at least, does she support murders and drug dealings?
Well, you tell me after you hear this.
You see, at the 2012 Olympic games, Serena faced Maria Sharapova in a lopsided game,
wherein she came out victorious, clenching her first golden slam title…
And to celebrate this, she burst into the Crip walk dance for a few seconds to loud
cheers from the crowd, while her sister Venus beamed, yelled and threw her hands in the
air in rhythm.
It was only a dance, right?
Wrong!
That dance sparked a lot of controversies at the time.
The Crip Walk or C-walk is a hip-hop dance which we see the likes of Snoop Dogg dance
often; remember when he did it on stage with Dr Dre on the halftime show of the Super Bowl?
Yup!
That dance.
Turns out that the C-Walk was first popularized by the 1970s Los Angeles gang, known as the
Crips who were famous for their drug trades and brutal murders.
So many concluded that Serena Williams was supporting crime by literally dancing with
the devil.
Jason Whitlock of Fox Sport wrote, in response to the action of the star, that:
"What Serena did was akin to cracking a tasteless, X-rated joke inside a church, Serena deserved
to be called out.
What she did was immature and classless."
The criticism didn't hit the brakes there, as another blogger named Debbie Schlussel
wrote:
"Yup, that's what we need representing America, a Gold Medallist who, upon winning, glorifies
hardened criminals who murder each other – and innocent Americans – for sport."
But Serena couldn't be bothered about all her critics and her response said it all:
"I don't care," she said.
"That's the least of my worries ... I'm so excited I was able to dance.
I'm glad I did it!"
While Serena Williams was busy dancing herself into unfriendly media territory, Roger Federer
unknowingly threw himself into severe tension from his Pakistani fans.
MARIA SHARAPOVA:
You're probably wondering when did they ever make competitions between humans and aircraft
that you never got to hear about, especially when it had your favorite tennis player involved.
Well, you're not crazy or under the rock, there wasn't really any official competition
like that.
However, Maria Sharapova has been credited for having the loudest grunt in tennis history
and when they compiled it to the sound aircraft made, they discovered hers was louder.
It was recorded that her on-court grunt was capable of producing a volume as high as 101
decibels.
If you saw the Chinese movie, Kungfu Hustle which had the landlady with the sonic scream,
then maybe you will be able to understand the extent of her shriek.
But on a more practical note, Maria's scream on the court is louder than a lawnmower, than
a motorcycle and a small aircraft landing and almost the same volume as that of an ambulance
siren.
But that's not even all.
When the king of the jungle, a lion roars, many of us without any doubt will take cover.
Well, a lion's roar is only 5 decibels louder than Maria's roar.
Damn! just damn!
So to put it in perfect perspective, when you come against Sharapova, you are almost
coming up against a lion.
Kudos to all those who faced her and were even able to beat her.
We move away from the lion's den now where you wouldn't really be blamed if you lost
to Maria Shaparapova because, well you were overwhelmed by the noise, to one who blamed
a hot chick instead for losing a game.
NICK KYRGIOS
This video will not be complete without Australian tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios.
Nick lives and breathes controversies.
He is a good player who has ranked as high as no.
13 in the ATP world ranking but whose popularity has been bolstered by his frequent on and
off-court outburst and misbehaviours.
Guys, it's never a dull moment with Nick; who can ever forget when he asked his fans
to smear their faces with Nutella and Vegemite to show their support for him.
Or when he asked for a beer during a game.
It's no longer surprising to hear Nick on the news for shouting at the umpire or throwing
a chair in frustration and anger or just shading other tennis stars on shows.
But this might just surprise you:
It was September 21 2019, on a hot Saturday afternoon, when Nick faced Roger Federer in
the Laver Cup.
The Swiss legend had come from a set down to beat the Aussie youngster in a game that
was considered tough and tight.
After the game, Nick had complained to captain John McEnroe that a hot chick in the stands
had stolen his concentration and that was why he lost.
He had said:
“I lost concentration, I saw a really hot chick in the crowd.
Like, I’m being jarringly honest — I’d marry her right now.
Right now.”
Nevertheless, we never really heard any news of him marrying that girl or any other girl
since.
And I wouldn't have been surprised if they said something in the line of him being a
stalker.
Haha, just kidding!
However, this next and last one for today is for all those stalkers and the stalked,
out there, stay out of trouble folks!
EMMA RADUCANU
We all know that celebrities get stalked all the time and while this can get really creepy
and dangerous, it never seems to be going away anytime soon.
The British star and one time U.S Open champ, Emma Raducanu had gotten her own taste of
the stalking pie in the most extreme way possible.
She had been stalked by a 35 year old man named Amrit Magar who admitted to have walked
23 miles from his place in Harrow, North East London down to Emma's home where he had stolen
Emma's father's shoes because he thought they had belonged to the tennis star.
When her father discovered that his trainers were missing, he quickly alerted the police
and Amrit was caught.
He pleaded guilty to the court and confessed that he got in touch with her address by going
to Emma's family home and then asking people for directions.
When he discovered Emma's personal home, he had visited with unsolicited gifts and cards,
stolen items from the porch and even went as far as leaving a lit Christmas tree on
the front porch in December of last year.
Emma as you can imagine, is understandably devastated about the ordeal and she had commented:
"Since all this has happened I have felt creeped out.
I feel very apprehensive if I go out, especially if I am on my own.
Because of this I feel like my freedom has been taken away from me.
It's just crazy but thank God Emma is already looking to get herself a new home.
She had said this herself, saying
“I want to move to a new house with better security because I am worried he might come
back as he knows where my home is.”