Troll blazer!
Amarjot Kaur
So, you thought that tennis is all about rackets, love, and balls? Well, seems like the Wimbledon 2015 had a little more to offer than just all of that! With Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams leading the Wimbledon Roll of Honour following thrilling fortnight of tennis at SW19, the social media was set ablaze with obloquy pointed at the tennis stars with trolls doing rounds on Facebook and Twitter.
While some of these trolls were taken with a pinch of salt, others received flack quoted with generous amount of sarcasm. Now here’s what you get for calling Serena Williams ‘manly’...! So, as we bring to you the tennis trolls that did rounds this Wimbledon Championship, it’s time you spared a thought about where to draw the line, especially when poking humour at someone.
If looks could kill, literally!
Talking of being rebuked online, Twitter comments on Marion Bartoli, Serena Williams and Heather Watson received some of the nastiest comments on what should be the happiest day of their careers. Wimbledon winner Marion Bartoli faced an online backlash with trolls branding her ‘fat’, ‘manly’ and an ‘ugly b****’.
The online attacks took place after 28-year-old Bartoli scooped the woman’s singles prize at Wimbledon final. Online trolls took to Twitter to criticise her looks, saying that she did not deserve to win as she is too ‘ugly’ on the day when Bartoli today defeated Sabine Lisicki, who had gained huge admiration for the way she beat last year’s champion Serena Williams earlier in the tournament. She, however, lost to 15th seed Bartoli 6-1, 6-4 after an hour and 21 minutes on Centre Court.
If you think that is mean and sadist, wait till you hear what JK Rowling, the author of Harry Potter series, had to reply to a Twitter comment that addressed Serena Williams as manly. When a Twitter troll decided to criticise 2015 Wimbledon women’s singles winner Serena Williams for looking like “a man”, Harry Potter author JK Rowling slammed him.
Twitter user @diegtristan8 tweeted after Serena’s victory “she is built like a man.” Rowling then tweeted out to the user with a picture of Serena looking stunning in a red dress with the words, “Yeah, my husband looks just like this in a dress. You’re an idiot.”
Who gives a damn!
While reports claimed that Heather Watson was adamant that Twitter trolls will not wreck her latest bid to break through the third-round barrier at a Grand Slam, she admitted in a news interview that the vicious social media users have made her life a misery in the past as her career progressed without really taking flight.
Heather Watson faced 32nd seed Caroline Garcia at Wimbledon on Monday. The British No 1 has never reached the fourth round at a Grand Slam but Watson admits that negative social media messages used to affect her! Not so the case with Novak Djokovic, who won the Wimbledon 2015 beating Roger Federer (2-1) on grass and slam finals.
While Facebook tennis trolls posted sardonic remarks about Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, it did not quite seem to interfere with the fate of the match whatsoever!
Guest appearance
The royal box witnessed Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma with Facebook trolls about them watching the match and wondering how civilized they are, shot heavy sarcasm at Mr Kohli, but he was not the only one subjected to these remarks. Seems like the trolls took a dig at Prince William’s hair loss in a picture of him and Kate Middleton at the tournament!
Seems like everyone has to pay the price for being a star, but whether this would stop the trolling is a different issue altogether!
amarjot@tribunemail.com
