Exuberant displays of emotion are part and parcel of being a human, and are
also part of the sports world, but it seems the world table tennis governing
body doesn’t think so.
China’s newly crowned table tennis World Cup champion Zhang Jike was fined his entire prize money of $45,000 by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) after kicking down some sponsorship barriers surrounding the court as he celebrated his win.
The final, against compatriot Ma Long, saw Zhang win the match 8-11, 11-4, 13-11, 7-11, 2-11, 11-5, 12-10 in a hard-fought match. Elated by the win, Zhang kicked the barriers, although he later apologized.
After being thrashed 3-0 by Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in May, Zhang has been beleaguered by strong questions over his form.
Later, the reigning Olympic men’s singles champion was also dropped from China’s singles’ squad for the Incheon Asian Games.
From a career-high to a slump, the 26-year-old was burdened with tremendous pressure, and this may be one reason why he took his victory celebration a bit too far.
Swiss tennis great Roger Federer, who is widely considered the most considerate tennis player, has also on occasion lost his temper mid-game.
The latest was during the hard-court Cincinnati Masters. Federer smashed his racket down during the third-round match against Gael Monfils of France when he was trailing 5-4 in the second set. Federer moved on and later lifted the trophy, but nobody took his prize money using a stupid excuse like “damaging the court.”
When footballer Juergen Klinsmann kicked an oversized Sanyo advertising battery can as he was substituted during the Bundesliga game against Freiburg in his Bayern Munich days back in 1997, he was fined too.
But this only made him more popular. The Germans even parodied the scene in his farewell game.
If world sports governing bodies like the ITTF continue to keep such rigid rules, or even want to be more disciplined, then why aren’t they asking robots to show up for matches instead?