To siu, or not to siu.
The iconic goal celebration by Cristiano Ronaldo, usually reserved for football stadiums around the world, has found its way to the tennis — and not everyone is on board.
What started as a brief laugh quickly turned into widespread misunderstanding and now palpable irritation.
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Tennis, like golf, has for so long been a gentleman’s sport — Nick Kyrgios himself said so after his defeat to Daniil Medvedev on Thursday night.
“I thought the atmosphere was awesome. I thought the crowd was like, that’s what sport is,” he said.
“You’ve got the most entertaining player playing in his home slam on Rod Laver. You’d expect the crowd to be like that.
“I can understand it’s a gentleman’s game, but it’s about time that people embraced some sort of different energy in this sport otherwise it will die out.”
But even still, Kyrgios knew that there were certain points where that tradition needs to be respected, where silence is a show of respect.
“I told the umpire, I also said that in my match against Broady that obviously the media didn’t pick up, but I said, you know, you should tell the crowd not to scream out before, whether it’s me — I don’t really care honestly too much if it’s my serve,” he said.
“Obviously big points, no. But if it’s like 40-Love, 1-up, I told the umpire: ‘Tell the crowd to quiet down. My opponent might not like that’.”
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Medvedev certainly did not enjoy it, telling media post-match: “Between first and second serve, that’s where, you know, it’s tough.”
“It’s not good for the game I think to do it, because probably people don’t know, but when you’re getting ready for the second serve, it’s a tough moment. I think people should respect both players and just don’t talk in these moments.”
UK tennis legend Andy Murray said the yelling of “siu” was “incredibly irritating”, while after beating Broady Kyrgios said of the crowd to reporters: “Yeah, it’s just stupid. F***, I can’t believe they did it so much.”
Medvedev was hardly alone in that assessment too, with AFL star Mason Cox even taking to social media to call out the ongoing ‘Siu’ chants from the crowd.
“Medvedev is hilarious. Just ignores the crowd booing him and calls them out,” he tweeted.
“Loved the way he played. Just took care of business. Laser focus and methodical. Impressive, you have to respect it.”
Cox later found out, like many others initially confused by the noise, that the crowd was not booing but it changed little.
“Apparently people are saying Siu which means yes in Spanish and it’s a Ronaldo celebration,” he tweeted.
“Tennis is not soccer. When 76000 people say it after a Ronaldo goal it’s cool. When 100s yell it to a tennis star that hears it as “Boo” it doesn’t send the right message.”
It is the timing rather than what is being yelled out that really matters and Cox was joined by a chorus of viewers criticising the chants just as loudly as those responsible for it.
“In Davis Cup ties we see the parochialism of the home country, we acknowledge that and respect that,” former Australian tennis player Roger Rasheed told SEN.
“This is entertaining to a level, and then I think it crosses a line where it’s not a tennis match anymore because there’s too much going on with all the punters there.
“They feel like they’re going to that match and they have to be involved.
“It’s okay, different eyeballs on tennis, but are they coming to watch any other matches or is it just this?”
Former Australian tennis players Todd Woodbridge and Darren Cahill had a very different take on the debate though.
“I had a friend who works in the opera and they came along and said Nick is bringing new people into the crowd… that is exactly what Nick is doing to our tennis,” he said on Channel Nine.
“I loved every second of it last night,” Cahill added.
“I thought it was engaging. Remember Medvedev played a few games at US Open a few years ago where the crowd was the same or worse. He loves that stuff. He works them over. He didn’t show any emotion last night. Blocked the crowd out.”
Meanwhile, on The Tennis Podcast, Eurosport journalist Catherine Whittaker was on the opposite end of the spectrum, critical of the crowd’s behaviour.
“I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I hate it so much,” she said.
“I love atmosphere, I really don’t mind drunk Australians in a crowd being a bit silly. I’m into all sorts of crowd vibes and I really don’t like this.
“It’s something about the fact it is exclusively male. Maybe there is the odd female voice in there being drowned out but it certainly sounds exclusively male, exclusively a certain demographic of male that feels so sort of tired and toxic masculinity somehow. Get a life. They all think it is so cool and clever.”
Jim Courier was forced to explain the origin of the chant to Medvedev on the court after his match, a fact that BBC 5 Live and BT Sport’s David Law saw as particularly important.
“The fact all these players, they don’t know what is going on and they’re mistaking it for booing… it’s just rubbish,” he said.
“Stop doing it.”
“Medvedev was really irritated by it,” Matt Roberts added.
“There was a different energy to his goading of the crowd in that on-court interview. It came from a place of irritation, the fact they were doing it between first and second serves is the thing that annoyed him the most.
“When he started saying: ‘Guys I can’t hear Jim Courier, he’s a two-time champion, you’ve got to respect him’, that was great.”
The fact Medvedev was able to win Thursday’s match, doing so with a steely focus that had Dylan Alcott comparing him to a “robot”, spoke volumes to how mature the Russian is now.
“Five years ago I probably would break two racquets, just get angry, start shouting at my box for nothing. And it probably would not help me win the match,” he told Eurosportpost-match.
“I could win some [matches] like this, but you cannot win Grand Slams like this.
“So it makes me really happy because I can still have some tantrums, we all know it, but I’ve been working on myself. I’ve been working pretty hard last couple of years and I’m trying to mature as a tennis player and a person.
“The match like tonight, and a few last year, show that I’m capable of being really strong mentally no matter what happens on the court and I’m really happy about that.”
Medvedev certainly gained some fans in Australia on Thursday night with the way he handled the drama.
The same though cannot be said for the co-opted ‘Siu’ chant.