ATP Players' Treatment of Water Bottles

As a Nadal fan, I have slowly across the years begun to become more and more fond of the importance of respecting water bottles. Sometimes it's easy to throw these water bottles away as if they're litter, making poor ball boys having to pick it up. Now this is pretty unfair to ballboys and ballgirls who have to pick it up, but most importantly it's hugely disrespectful to the water bottles themselves.

Nadal has passionately supported for the rights of water bottles since he was young. OK he may take time between points, ok he may spend 10 of his maximum 20 seconds picking at his butt, ok also true he grunts really loudly which may annoy some tennis fans... but he realises that somewhere a line must be drawn. And water bottles are that line.
Water bottles love being kept symmetrically. The level of water in these water bottles also must go down simultaneously, if not the water bottles feel like someone is picking favourites. They must also be kept perfectly in front of the chair of the player while in use, or they don't get a good view of the match while play is going on.

But some players shockingly don't give water bottles the respect they deserve. In the second round of Wimbledon this year, Rosol knocked over Nadal's water bottle; which went sprawling flat onto the floor.  I was so shocked that I nearly spat out my Moët champagne.

However that's not the worst bit of abuse I've seen of water bottles. In the World Tour Finals of 2011, against Tsonga in the final, Roger Federer took his empty water bottle and just chucked it behind him. Someone will have had to bend over and pick it up, and that's not him. He even did the same in Miami 2009 against Djokovic. He took the water bottle, finished drinking the contents (not keeping the level of the water in all water bottles same like Nadal), and then chucked it behind him so one of the ballboys can pick it up.
Vs Tsonga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugaVxVL_4lI
Vs Djokovic: https://s25.photobucket.com/user/roddickwatch/media/animated%20gifs/rogertoss.gif.html

Ironic that Federer talked about respect to ballboys when winning his Moet sportsmanship award. It's all well and good paying respects to ballboys by chucking water bottles here and there and making them pick it up. But what about respect to the water bottles themselves ?

IMBL (Water Bottle Trade Union leader)

Slow day at the bottling plant?

And still he wins the sportsmanship award... :shakes head:

I bet he spat in those bottles too, the fiend!

Mildly amusing IMBL.

But (a bit like Novak) sometimes one can try just a little too hard to be funny.

C-

Not well written. Very little humour.

You could do with a super star coach - Bogbrush?

Have people in their hysterical laughter at this article managed to click the links ?

You peaked with Moët! Don't spoil it's memory

legendkillarV2 wrote:You peaked with Moët! Don't spoil it's memory

I'm not close to peaking, I'm like Djokovic in Miami 2009.
In a bit of trouble, years away from my best, the only consolation is I'm not like my opponent chucking bottles on the floor so ballboys can pick them up.

Water bottles would get better treatment if they weren't injured for over half the season.

Its easy to be facetious over water bottles but when it comes to the treatment of ballboys with respect to towels, it is a serious matter. To expect a ball boy to carry their towels with all manner of bodily fluids is completely wrong. Nadal should have to come and be a 'towel boy' in his regular injury periods.

It's the roll of ball boys to firstly retrieve balls, and also help carry towels and drinks.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_boy

As well as dealing with the game balls, ball boys/girls may also provide the players with other assistance, such as the delivery of towels and drinks.

However chucking something on the floor, expecting ballboys to simply pick it up from the ground, whether it's towels or bottles- is frankly pretty disrespectful behaviour.

I'd rather pick something up than be handed a horrible sweaty towel. Each to their own I suppose though

greengoblin wrote:I'd rather pick something up than be handed a horrible sweaty towel. Each to their own I suppose though

But delivering towels and bottles are part of their job, prospective ball-boys and ball-girls will have this in mind when they decide whether to apply or not, that doesn't mean you have to disrespect the ball boys when out on court.

greengoblin wrote:Its easy to be facetious over water bottles but when it comes to the treatment of ballboys with respect to towels, it is a serious matter. To expect a ball boy to carry their towels with all manner of bodily fluids is completely wrong. Nadal should have to come and be a 'towel boy' in his regular injury periods.

What exactly do you think the ball boys were told would be the point if carrying the towels?

It Must Be Love wrote:It's the roll of ball boys to firstly retrieve balls, and also help carry towels and drinks.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_boy

As well as dealing with the game balls, ball boys/girls may also provide the players with other assistance, such as the delivery of towels and drinks.

However chucking something on the floor, expecting ballboys to simply pick it up from the ground, whether it's towels or bottles- is frankly pretty disrespectful behaviour.

It's disgraceful. I haven't watched those link but I assume it's Federer misbehaving again. Just as well you like him though or you might write lots of threads pointing out all the bad things he does.

At this moment let us also show some courtesy to Tennis balls and request the tennis players and rackets to not hit them let alone hit them for fun.

Ball abusers Admin Club.  

It Must Be Love wrote:

greengoblin wrote:I'd rather pick something up than be handed a horrible sweaty towel. Each to their own I suppose though

But delivering towels and bottles are part of their job, prospective ball-boys and ball-girls will have this in mind when they decide whether to apply or not, that doesn't mean you have to disrespect the ball boys when out on court.  

So it would be soooo difficult for the players to walk to the back of the court themselves and towel down, rather than rudely pointing for it and chucking it back?

Its ludicrous the amount these players ask for the towel. Its not reasonable to ask ball boys to keep going back and forth for dirty towels. They should instead ask the players to not behave like the overpaid spoilt brats they are.

invisiblecoolers wrote:At this moment let us also show some courtesy to Tennis balls and request the tennis players and rackets to not hit them let alone hit them for fun.

Ball abusers Admin Club.  

IC, I am proud of your record of protecting the integrity of tennis balls :

yeah what Federer did was almost as bad as Nadal cheating every single time he plays by going over 25 seconds (minutes?) per point. You may laugh it off as insignificant, or you might wonder whether it breaks up the opponents rhythm.

I would say his service motion with his tics really delay his serve rather than anything else; but either way surely you recognise two wrongs don't make a right.

It Must Be Love wrote:I would say his service motion with his tics really delay his serve rather than anything else; but either way surely you recognise two wrongs don't make a right.

I don't see anything wrong with what Federer did. Its like saying players shouldn't leave the balls on the court; instead they should wait for the ball boys to come collect them from their hands.

greengoblin wrote:

I don't see anything wrong with what Federer did.

OK fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

as to the rest of my post? Are you struggling with your logic?, because I certainly am.

It Must Be Love wrote:

invisiblecoolers wrote:At this moment let us also show some courtesy to Tennis balls and request the tennis players and rackets to not hit them let alone hit them for fun.

Ball abusers Admin Club.  

IC, I am proud of your record of protecting the integrity of tennis balls :

greengoblin wrote:as to the rest of my post? Are you struggling with your logic?, because I certainly am.

Well I think I've made my position clear, I think to chuck a water bottle behind him and so a ball boy can pick it up (rather than handing it to the ballboy as players normally do) is pretty disrespectful.
Note in the Miami example this was just after he had smashed his racket, you can see the broken racket leaning on his bench in the video.

It Must Be Love wrote:Well I think I've made my position clear.

Crystal.

Lol, remember the time everyone said Nadal's time inbetween serves was giving him an unfair advantage, and then the year the ATP cracked down on service times he went 75-7 with two slams and a record equalling five masters? It turned out shorter rest periods between serves favoured the fitter player (and.not the Offensive player, as everyone bleeped)... who knew??

JuliusHMarx wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:Well I think I've made my position clear.

Crystal.

Do you agree with my position ?

kingraf wrote:Lol, remember the time everyone said Nadal's time inbetween serves was giving him an unfair advantage, and then the year the ATP cracked down on service times he went 75-7 with two slams and a record equalling five masters? It turned out shorter rest periods between serves favoured the fitter player (and.not the Offensive player, as everyone bleeped)... who knew??

I think it probably does help his opponent more so than Nadal (rather than Djokovic maybe.. or any other player who is fitter than Nadal); but you can't doubt he is the most frequent to take more than 20secs due to his tics.

I want to throw my sweaty jockstrap at you all!

legendkillarV2 wrote:I want to throw my sweaty jockstrap at you all!

Legendkiller, I'm expecting some towelie from South Park jokes from you pronto

It Must Be Love wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:I want to throw my sweaty jockstrap at you all!

Legendkiller, I'm expecting some towelie from South Park jokes from you pronto

I will not waste quality material on such a thread!

It Must Be Love wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:Well I think I've made my position clear.

Crystal.

Do you agree with my position ?

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean would I write multiple threads purely to point out things that I don't like about fave, fave player's main rival, despite saying "But I like him really"? No I don't agree with that

JuliusHMarx wrote:

It Must Be Love wrote:
Do you agree with my position ?

Not sure what you mean.

Sorry I didn't make myself clear, I was talking about what I was discussing with GG, about Federer and his water bottles.

It's an affront to mankind. Another example of what a spoilt brat Federer is. Thank you for raising a thread to point it out. Please do some more.

JuliusHMarx wrote:It's an affront to mankind. Another example of what a spoilt brat Federer is. Thank you for raising a thread to point it out. Please do some more.

It's hardly an affront to mankind, but I do think it's not great sportsmanship and pretty disrespectful to ballboys.

OK it's not an affront to mankind. Still worth a thread though. It's what the forum needs.

Cheers !

Oh! you mean the Miami match with Novak? When Roger completely lost his temper and started throwing his water bottles and absolutely walloped his racket! I remember that, its notbaly in how unusual it is, by the whole Rogers pretty exceptional on court, not that anyones really saying that

Didn't you intend this as a humorous thread? Guess it didn't take long for you to go back to your usual guff.

emancipator wrote:Didn't you intend this as a humorous thread?

It is whatever you want it to be

In the words of prime.   Steady gentlemen we can agree to disagree

It Must Be Love wrote:

emancipator wrote:Didn't you intend this as a humorous thread?

It is whatever you want it to be

I wanted it to be a pointless dig at something Fed did a long time ago veiled in a rather poor attempt at humour. I wish I'd thought of it.

JuliusHMarx wrote:I wish I'd thought of it.

Julius this is a tennis forum, not everything everyone writes will be your cup of tea- if you don't want to comment on something then you don't have to
If you didn't find the article funny or didn't like it at all that's fine, you've already commented 7 times and I've got the idea

But what if I do want to comment on it?

You have to remember IIMBL there are some players,like Berdych and others in this tournament that actually lost their bottle.. :l

I'm not convinced Berdych ever had a bottle!

so true

IMBL. I agree that water bottles should be respected but I don't think you are being fair to fair to Federer when you accuse him of lacking respect. I agree that he does occasionally throw them around but he only does this to amuse the ball boys. When he was a ball boy he used to love it when the players threw the bottles around as he liked nothing better than the challenge of catching them. Sadly the standard of ball boys has dropped since he had the role and sometimes they are a little slow and miss.

The real problem is the commentators and journalists. They encourage players to kick over neatly placed bottles. They appear to believe water bottles have some hidden powers and that by knocking over an opponents water bottles they can magically win matches. An odd superstition I know but some players are naive enough to believe anything. Educating the commentators and journalists I believe would be a better way of tackling this problem