The video says it all. During a group match between Switzerland and the USA in the Hopman Cup in Perth in the first week of January, Roger Federer and Jack Sock may have, er, forgotten that they were playing a mixed doubles match.
As the male players exchanged shots in a prolonged rally, their female partners, Belinda Bencic and CoCo Vandeweghe, respectively, probably began to wonder what they were doing on court. And acted accordingly (video above).
At which point the men began to play trick shots to prolong the rally and, presumably, entertain the audience. “Might as well take a seat, ladies, because this could go for a while,” said the Channel 7 commentator.
It was all quite amusing – or it could trigger off some introspection about the larger lack of equality between women and men tennis players, especially when it comes to prize money, a point that many top women players have raised already.
Not surprisingly, people on the internet had their own views – and plenty of them. A sampler:
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