How important is winning the crowd?

A

Arak

Legend
Now that the crowds are fully back, how important is it to have the crowd with you not against you?

Tsitsipas lost the crowd with his unsportsmanlike conduct since his first match, and paid the price.

Alcaraz won the crowd and did extremely well until his injury.

Van de Zandschulp had the crowd mostly cheering for him for no particular reason apart from that he didn’t do anything bad on court. The perfect example of the true gentleman/tennis player.

And of course, some players like Djokovic play better against the crowd.

Your thoughts?
 
Arak said:
Now that the crowds are fully back, how important is it to have the crowd with you not against you?

Tsitsipas lost the crowd with his unsportsmanlike conduct since his first match, and paid the price.

Alcaraz won the crowd and did extremely well until his injury.

Van de Zandschulp had the crowd mostly cheering for him for no particular reason apart from that he didn’t do anything bad on court. The perfect example of the true gentleman/tennis player.

And of course, some players like Djokovic play better against the crowd.

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...
If you are weak mentally its very important. But if you're weak mentally it doesnt matter anyway, you wont achieve much, Federer being exception from the rule.
 
nov said:
If you are weak mentally its very important. But if you're weak mentally it doesnt matter anyway, you wont achieve much, Federer being exception from the rule.
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But what if your opponent is also weak mentally? The crowd can be the tipping factor.
 
When people are cheering for a player, it gives them more confidence. Playing against the crowd is more stressful. I also think when the crowd is behind you, feeling strong support blends nicely with your play, whereas it takes additional focus not to pay attention to people rooting against you.
 
The Fedfather said:
When people are cheering for a player, it gives them more confidence. Playing against the crowd is more stressful. I also think when the crowd is behind you, feeling strong support blends nicely with your play, whereas it takes additional focus not to pay attention to people rooting against you.
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And if you’re gassed or injured, the crowd can carry you to keep on playing and make that extra effort.
 
Arak said:
And if you’re gassed or injured, the crowd can carry you to keep on playing and make that extra effort.
Click to expand...
Right. Most of the time the crowd is not a key factor, but it can be, especially for extroverted players.

Outside of just winning/losing, having the crowd overwhelmingly cheer for your opponent, unless they are patriotically motivated, is probably a hit to the player's ego.
 
Depends upon the player and condition. If you're the underdog, crowd helps ya, if you're the favorite, it sometimes may backfire and you feel pressurized.
 
It just depends. A lot depends how you are playing. For example I don’t think Barty was playing that well to begin with and was there for the taking.
 
I always thought that the crowd is overrated. The crowd cannot help your strokes. The crowd cannot help you endurance. The crowd cannot help with strategy or anything else.

It is always nice to have friendly people cheering for you. But at this level, in this game, the crowd cannot make any difference in play. So very many times, the player who obviously has the crowd support, loses.

When training for any sport, players are always coached to block out the crowd and focus on the business at hand. Often times, the player who can best block out the crowd has the advantage.
 
bigserving said:
I always thought that the crowd is overrated. The crowd cannot help your strokes. The crowd cannot help you endurance. The crowd cannot help with strategy or anything else.

It is always nice to have friendly people cheering for you. But at this level, in this game, the crowd cannot make any difference in play. So very many times, the player who obviously has the crowd support, loses.

When training for any sport, players are always coached to block out the crowd and focus on the business at hand. Often times, the player who can best block out the crowd has the advantage.
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So why home matches in team sports give the local team a very clear advantage?
 
What evidence is there that Djokovic plays better when the crowd is against him? We're gonna need a control group on that, lol. He plays well regardless, but he still wants and begs for crowd support throughout his matches. So clearly, he doesn't believe it's better for them to be against him.

Crowd support is huge when the margins are so small. And since tennis is such a mental sport, where you can watch the qualifiers hit the ball as hard as the legends, and sometimes even harder, surely homefield advantage is a thing.
 
you want a perfect example of how a crowd can help or hurt? look at the French Open. Fans there massively cheer for their own players to the point other players have complained about them being to obnoxious, its a huge mental thing not only having to deal with your opponent then having the entire stadium against you as well
 
ledwix said:
What evidence is there that Djokovic plays better when the crowd is against him? We're gonna need a control group on that, lol. He plays well regardless, but he still wants and begs for crowd support throughout his matches. So clearly, he doesn't believe it's better for them to be against him.

Crowd support is huge when the margins are so small. And since tennis is such a mental sport, where you can watch the qualifiers hit the ball as hard as the legends, and sometimes even harder, surely homefield advantage is a thing.
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I honestly don’t believe he plays better with the crowd against him, but that’s the narrative that has been pushed for years by his fans. I personally find that when the crowd is against him, he tends to have rage episodes.
 
ledwix said:
What evidence is there that Djokovic plays better when the crowd is against him? We're gonna need a control group on that, lol. He plays well regardless, but he still wants and begs for crowd support throughout his matches. So clearly, he doesn't believe it's better for them to be against him.

Crowd support is huge when the margins are so small. And since tennis is such a mental sport, where you can watch the qualifiers hit the ball as hard as the legends, and sometimes even harder, surely homefield advantage is a thing.
Click to expand...
To be honest I've never seen any atmosphere like USO 2015 ever for a Slam final. So he is in completely unprecedented territory there. I wouldn't compare what Djokovic goes through to any other player.

I agree though, even he is better with a crowd behind him. It probably is easier knowing that they will be against you no matter what (i.e. his Fedal matches) so he can fully prepare for it.

I think players have much more issues handling swings of crowd momentum and uncertainty.
 
Arak said:
So why home matches in team sports give the local team a very clear advantage?
Click to expand...

Because in team sports the rules are often very subjective. You can technically call holding on every football snap, a foul on every trip down the court in basketball. In that environment the crowd can affect the refs/umpires and therefore affect the outcome.

In tennis there is no significant source of human bias, the ball is either in or out.
 
topher said:
Because in team sports the rules are often very subjective. You can technically call holding on every football snap, a foul on every trip down the court in basketball. In that environment the crowd can affect the refs/umpires and therefore affect the outcome.

In tennis there is no significant source of human bias, the ball is either in or out.
Click to expand...
Crowds do not influence refereeing decisions but they can give the home team extra motivation. You don’t think that crowd support doesn’t do the same in tennis?
 
Arak said:
Crowds do not influence refereeing decisions but they can give the home team extra motivation. You don’t think that crowd support doesn’t do the same in tennis?
Click to expand...

Crowds do influence referee decisions in team sports. Ask any basketball or football fan how the fans influence the match, I feel a poll will show most believe it is by impacting the referee decisions, and team motivation is a secondary factor.

The motivation effect in tennis can occasionally be significant, sure, but almost always less than the media or players (who both like to suck up to the fans since they ultimately pay their bills) will pretend.
 
topher said:
Crowds do influence referee decisions in team sports. Ask any basketball or football fan how the fans influence the match, I feel a poll will show most believe it is by impacting the referee decisions, and team motivation is a secondary factor.

The motivation effect in tennis can occasionally be significant, sure, but almost always less than the media or players (who both like to suck up to the fans since they ultimately pay their bills) will pretend.
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Well, I see your point about refereeing decision. You’re probably right about that.
 
boredone3456 said:
you want a perfect example of how a crowd can help or hurt? look at the French Open. Fans there massively cheer for their own players to the point other players have complained about them being to obnoxious, its a huge mental thing not only having to deal with your opponent then having the entire stadium against you as well
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Interesting as Monfils and Tsonga have much of their best results in France located tournaments.
 
Of course they help. Look at the Premier League or any other football top league last year and there was more away wins than any other season in history. Imagine 60,000 people cheering you on anytime you attack or them giving you abuse etc. It’s human nature to be affected by this.
This is why I consider Djokovic mentally strongest in all of sport. All the times he’s won against the crowd is mentally another level
 
Zetty said:
Interesting as Monfils and Tsonga have much of their best results in France located tournaments.
Click to expand...

I remember one french open on the womens side, I think it was Mladenovic, who made the 4th round in part because the crowd starting cheering every time her opponents hit an error and booing when they won games. The French are definitely very...passionate....about their players.
 
Zetty said:
Interesting as Monfils and Tsonga have much of their best results in France located tournaments.
Click to expand...
US players tend to have their best in the US. It’s just simple though if players are about level in ability and one gets boo’d or no support while the other gets amazing support they will struggle unless they are mentally strong
 
Massive, but it works in different ways sometimes.

See Djoker. He plays better when the crowd is strongly against him.
 
mob_is_fickle_brother.jpg


. . . but I'd rather have them for me than against me.
 
Arak said:
Now that the crowds are fully back, how important is it to have the crowd with you not against you?

Tsitsipas lost the crowd with his unsportsmanlike conduct since his first match, and paid the price.

Alcaraz won the crowd and did extremely well until his injury.

Van de Zandschulp had the crowd mostly cheering for him for no particular reason apart from that he didn’t do anything bad on court. The perfect example of the true gentleman/tennis player.

And of course, some players like Djokovic play better against the crowd.

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Djokovic does not play better against the crowd. I don't know where that myth comes from. Check out Djokovic playing Fed at Wimbledon, then check him out playing Nadal at the ATP Cup or RG. Where do you see more energy and aggression from him?
 
King No1e said:
Djokovic does not play better against the crowd. I don't know where that myth comes from. Check out Djokovic playing Fed at Wimbledon, then check him out playing Nadal at the ATP Cup or RG. Where do you see more energy and aggression from him?
Click to expand...
To be honest, I don’t believe it either. It’s just what many of his fans promote around here, that he plays better when he’s angry. I agree with you that when he’s enjoying the crowd support, he plays his best tennis.
 
Arak said:
So why home matches in team sports give the local team a very clear advantage?
Click to expand...
Team sport is very different compared to individual. In team sports such as basketball for example, momentum is very important and crowd can help push their home team.
 
Winning over the crowd is important if that is your goal. If you want to win over your opponent, you had better focus on doing that. That’s what Novak does.
 
It's well documented that spectators influence not only the athletes, but also the officials working the game. After all they're only human, and the univeral human emotion is to give the people what they want.

In football, that means fewer holding penalties for the home team, more for the visitors. In baseball, the home team gets friendlier ball and strike calls. It happens in every single team sports.
 
Steffi Graf would be a good source to answer this question. She had the crowd on her side in two matches at Roland Garros that she was not favored to win. In 1992, losing to Seles. In 1999, beating Hingis. I wonder what she would say about how helpful the crowd were.
 
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