Why Do Tennis Fans Make So Many Excuses?

[HoyaPride]

You always hear a lot of excuses about age, knees, mental fatigue, broken confidence, chair umpires, moonballs, MTOs, etc. It seems that tennis fans are quick to discount a loss if they feel the perfect conditions were not satisfied for their favorite player. In sports like football and basketball, you don't hear nearly as much complaining.

-Peyton Manning had neck surgery in his mid 30s. He comes back and sets a new TD passing record, then gets blown out in the SB by the Seahawks. Nobody even brings up his age. He's roundly criticized as being mentally soft and a choke artist. Nobody asks what a 27-year old Manning would have done to the Seahawks Defense.

-Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls star player, has been out for two seasons with injuries. Bulls fans don't dismiss their losses simply because Rose was out. It's understood that injury was part of the game.

-Playoff games in other sports get played in another team's stadium where there's a tremendous home court/field advantage. Nobody says "If this game had been in Lambeau, it would have been a blow out." It's understood that the game wasn't in Lambeau and the fans move on. No excuses.

Tennis seems to be full of excuses.

 

[mightyrick]

You need to go visit more sports message boards. This behavior is rampant throughout all sports wherever the rabid fans hang out.

 

[ollinger]

^^ I hear these excuses in all sports. One even hears the time zone excuse...."the Chargers are in trouble this week in Philly as they're a west coast team playing a 1 PM game"

 

[rossi46]

You need to go visit more sports message boards. This behavior is rampant throughout all sports wherever the rabid fans hang out.

Agreed, even in motor sports. Better car etc

 

[HoyaPride]

^^ I hear these excuses in all sports. One even hears the time zone excuse...."the Chargers are in trouble this week in Philly as they're a west coast team playing a 1 PM game"

That's not an excuse. You don't see fans going back after the fact and complaining that their team would have won had it been sunny, not snowing, on turf, in a dome, etc. Once you lose, it's over. Nothing more to talk about.

In tennis, losses don't "count" if they were played on a less than favorable surface, if it's too windy, if said player had a stomach ache, if another player uses a strategy effectively against said player. For example, complaining about Nadal's top spin forehand to Federer's backhand is like Bears fans complaining about Adrian Peterson slashing apart their front 7.

 

[HoyaPride]

Were the Pittsburgh Steelers "cheap" and "cheaters" when they pounded the opposition with their running game for all of those years?

 

[HunterST]

I think the intense personal, one on one nature of tennis makes it difficult to accept a loss. Even when playing recreationally, the loser of a match is likely to come up with some excuses that make it easier to accept defeat.

 

[HoyaPride]

I think the intense personal, one on one nature of tennis makes it difficult to accept a loss. Even when playing recreationally, the loser of a match is likely to come up with some excuses that make it easier to accept defeat.

Boxing is even more intense than tennis. I mean, what is more intense than someone punching you in the face? And boxing is even worse than tennis in the sense that the champ often gets to decide what gloves are used, what the ring dimensions are, etc. But after one fighters gets his *** kicked, there's nothing more to talk about.

 

[10isPlaya]

Injury excuses are the worst.

 

[HoyaPride]

Injury excuses are the worst.

No, the "moonball" and "servbot" excuses are the worst. "He only won because he moonballed his backhand" or "He only won because he blasted him off the court with his serve." Why are you complaining about things that are perfectly within the rules? Can we go back and revoke all of the Lakers' titles because Shaq used his strength and size to dunk on the competition? Why couldn't he make hook shots and jumpers...the way the game was meant to be played?

If Shaq played like Kevin Garnett, I bet the Trailblazers would have won that series.

 

[10isPlaya]

No, the "moonball" and "servbot" excuses are the worst. "He only won because he moonballed his backhand" or "He only won because he blasted him off the court with his serve." Why are you complaining about things that are perfectly within the rules? Can we go back and revoke all of the Lakers' titles because Shaq used his strength and size to dunk on the competition? Why couldn't he make hook shots and jumpers...the way the game was meant to be played?

If Shaq played like Kevin Garnett, I bet the Trailblazers would have won that series.

No, the injury excuses are the worst. You are not objective enough to see that.

 

[Chico]

It is the same in every sport. There are intangibles and official bias everywhere and they will be talked over and reevaluated until the end of time in all sports. Tennis is not special here.

 

[tennisaddict]

In tennis there are many ways for players to abuse the rules.

Abusing rules on time
Illegal coaching
Untimely MTO

In other sports, you get a red card and you are out.

Naturally, the aggrieved fans complain a little more.

But the excuses are in many sports.

 

[dh003i]

Peyton Manning had neck surgery in his mid 30s. He comes back and sets a new TD passing record, then gets blown out in the SB by the Seahawks. Nobody even brings up his age. He's roundly criticized as being mentally soft and a choke artist. Nobody asks what a 27-year old Manning would have done to the Seahawks Defense.

Seattle's corner Richard Sherman claims they decoded Peyton Manning's audibles, so not too much of a knock on Manning. Commentors also noted that the refs let the Seahawks get away with a lot of contact beyond 5 yards out.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...claims-the-seahawks-cracked-the-manning-code/

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...claims-the-seahawks-cracked-the-manning-code/

Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls star player, has been out for two seasons with injuries. Bulls fans don't dismiss their losses simply because Rose was out. It's understood that injury was part of the game.

Yes, but apparently some here don't get that.

Playoff games in other sports get played in another team's stadium where there's a tremendous home court/field advantage. Nobody says "If this game had been in Lambeau, it would have been a blow out." It's understood that the game wasn't in Lambeau and the fans move on. No excuses.

Tennis seems to be full of excuses.

Correct.

 

[FormerNadalFan]

Funny how pretty much all of these "excuses" are regularly associated with Scratch-and-Sniff.

 

[Deleted member 77403]

Tennis fans?

This happens everywhere...

 

[RF20Lennon]

That's not an excuse. You don't see fans going back after the fact and complaining that their team would have won had it been sunny, not snowing, on turf, in a dome, etc. Once you lose, it's over. Nothing more to talk about.

It happens everywhere! I remember in the world cup last time a lot of English fans were complaining about how if Lampard's Goal had been allowed like it was supposed to that would've helped their confidence and they would've hammered Germany despite SPECTACULAR play from Ozil and Muller after that.

And likewise a lot of German fans blamed their loss to Spain because of the lack of Muller. Which is in a way hard to argue with!

It's natural and with tennis its slightly more because you have no team to depend on. It's just you. And no one else can make up for your injuries and confidence and age. So it plays a bigger role!

 

[BringBackSV]

Excuses are the way that some fans deal with things that they don't know how to handle. For example, Fed fans blame his losing head to head record against Rafa as being the fault of clay because they don't want to accept how badly Rafa has dominated him. Thus they pretend clay doesn't matter, so they can go on thinking that Fed is untouchable and hasn't been completely owned.

 

[LDVTennis]

You always hear a lot of excuses about age, knees, mental fatigue, broken confidence, chair umpires, moonballs, MTOs, etc. It seems that tennis fans are quick to discount a loss if they feel the perfect conditions were not satisfied for their favorite player. In sports like football and basketball, you don't hear nearly as much complaining.

-Peyton Manning had neck surgery in his mid 30s. He comes back and sets a new TD passing record, then gets blown out in the SB by the Seahawks. Nobody even brings up his age. He's roundly criticized as being mentally soft and a choke artist. Nobody asks what a 27-year old Manning would have done to the Seahawks Defense.

-Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls star player, has been out for two seasons with injuries. Bulls fans don't dismiss their losses simply because Rose was out. It's understood that injury was part of the game.

-Playoff games in other sports get played in another team's stadium where there's a tremendous home court/field advantage. Nobody says "If this game had been in Lambeau, it would have been a blow out." It's understood that the game wasn't in Lambeau and the fans move on. No excuses.

Tennis seems to be full of excuses.

Bravo.

I have made this argument before with respect to the habit of some Seles fans to overdramatize her stabbing. Women's tennis fans, in particular, are prone to melodrama.

That's the big difference between some of what you read here and some of what you read on football or basketball blogs --- too much drama and the concomitant "what if" scenarios that follow.

I am a Dallas Cowboy fan and follow the blog, Blogging the Boys. The year the Ravens faced the 49'ers in the SB, the Cowboys beat the 49'ers and should have defeated the Ravens in the regular season, missed a FG in the final minutes. No one on that blog ever speculated that the Cowboys would have or could have won that Super Bowl.

 

[Magnetite]

Happens all the time in any sport.

 

[andrewski]

You always hear a lot of excuses about age, knees, mental fatigue, broken confidence, chair umpires, moonballs, MTOs, etc. It seems that tennis fans are quick to discount a loss if they feel the perfect conditions were not satisfied for their favorite player. In sports like football and basketball, you don't hear nearly as much complaining.

-Peyton Manning had neck surgery in his mid 30s. He comes back and sets a new TD passing record, then gets blown out in the SB by the Seahawks. Nobody even brings up his age. He's roundly criticized as being mentally soft and a choke artist. Nobody asks what a 27-year old Manning would have done to the Seahawks Defense.

-Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls star player, has been out for two seasons with injuries. Bulls fans don't dismiss their losses simply because Rose was out. It's understood that injury was part of the game.

-Playoff games in other sports get played in another team's stadium where there's a tremendous home court/field advantage. Nobody says "If this game had been in Lambeau, it would have been a blow out." It's understood that the game wasn't in Lambeau and the fans move on. No excuses.

Tennis seems to be full of excuses.

They are too emotionally invested in players, instead of their families and relationships

Seriously, they try to find some other reasons for a loss instead of admitting their player was not good enough at least on a day.

It is less likely in total defeats like Brazil loss to Germany on Tuesday, because it would be foolish.

I am not sure you are right about other sports. In footie in UK, it is quite common to explain your team's loss by some "external" factors.