The pre-tournament press conference in Beijing was about the impact of social media on a player’s career. The journalist mentioned the very harsh judgements passed on players who post a lot, especially after poor results on court. We Love Tennis notes that Aryna Sabalenka has been very active on social media for some time.
She replied: “People think: ‘Okay, she’s on social media, so she’s not training.’ In reality, you spend, I don’t know, 30 minutes a day on it. I don’t see how that can be a source of distraction.” She went on to say that if you like sharing your life, you should do it, because people judge anyway.
Maxime, our intern, took the sentence as an open investigation.
Silly question, but who decided that a player on her phone isn’t training? I asked the newsroom. Someone told me tennis demands total concentration, which is why the crowd stays quiet during points. Fine. But meanwhile the crowd is on its phone. So total concentration only applies on court, and only to the person holding the racket? I timed thirty minutes on the 7:32 train. We had barely reached Ottignies, and all I’d done was read the comments under a photo of a racket. The comments all said she should have been training. The photo was of a training session. I checked, and actually nobody knows what you have to post for people to agree. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
Aryna Sabalenka had settled it before he did: “It’s as if you’re never good enough in other people’s eyes. I tell myself: why would I care? I don’t care at all (smiles).”
Maxime wrote the line in his notebook, below “why 15-30-40”. He still has no answer to either.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
