I Can't Believe We Are Levying Penalties On Tennis Players For Mocking Each Other's Grunts

Uproxx- Robin Haase took on Gonzalo Lama in the ATP event and was in the middle of an intense volley with Lama when play had to be stopped because of a “hindrance” call from the chair umpire. That hindrance? Haase got fed up with the grunts coming from Lama and decided to mock him in the middle of the point.

After several intense grunts from Lama during the back-and-forth action, you can clearly hear Haase give a very exaggerated (and hilarious) moan that forced the umpire to stop play and call him on it. It was a costly move by Haase, as the point was then awarded to Lama.



Honestly, I don't like the message that has been getting sent in sports recently. That message is that you can be a preposterous dickhead on the field of play as long as you are a preposterous dickhead at all times. It started Draymond Green being given a Stern (pun intended) warning after toe-kicking his opponent in the testicles, and we are now seeing the opposite side of things with this tennis player getting penalized a point for harmlessly mocking his opponent.  Draymond Green has gotten away with everything short of murder because he has consistently cheated the game to such a ridiculous extent that actual NBA officials truly believe that he has no control over his extremities. This tennis player has gotten away with becoming the most obnoxious verbal distraction short of the vuvuzela because he has dedicated himself to dry heaving as loud as possible every single time his racquet so much as makes contact with a tennis ball. By punishing Robin Haase this line judge basically just inferred that there is nothing that Gonzala Lama can do to restrain himself from verbally orgasming every time he exerts the smallest amount of energy. Quite frankly, that deduction of the situation is even more ridiculous then the deduction of Robin Haase's point.

I am tired of this sports landscape where we can't punish people for being themselves - whether they are doing so intentionally or unintentionally. If Draymond Green can't take a jump shot without doing roundhouse kick then suspend him until he learns how to do so. If Gonzala Lama can't go one set without sounding like he's ridding his body of a month long constipation than he should be stranded in 'love' until the end of time. We can't keep babying grown men that are perpetual assholes while punishing grown men that are simply occasional, retaliatory assholes. If everything is better in moderation than how come we are treating gamesmanship like it isn't?