Johnny Watterson: It serves no one to cast Emma Raducanu as the villain in crying-child debate

Irish Times

3 days ago

Emma Raducanu
sparked an unlikely debate in the
USA
this week. It quickly moved from the player's exchange with an umpire to becoming a discussion on good
parenting
.
Weighing up the tone of the remarks, it appears that people supported the reaction of the player and the crowd. Furthermore, they were critical of the umpire and the parents of a baby who began to cry in the middle of Raducanu's tennis match against world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the Cincinnati Open.
Before serving a vital point in the third set, the 2021
US Open
winner stopped play and pointed out a child crying in the stands before telling the umpire: 'It's been, like, 10 minutes.'
The official replied: 'It's a child. Do you want me to kick the child out of the stadium?'
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Raducanu then shrugged before some fans shouted 'Yes' on her behalf.
'I can call in, but we need to continue for the moment,' the umpire added before the match continued.
There were several takes on the incident. One was the perceived coldness towards the baby from the player and her willingness to have an infant taken out of the stadium for engaging in a very natural act.
Tennis is a sport where umpires routinely warn the spectators not to make noise when the ball is in play
A crying baby to some people's ears might be the most triggering noise and indicative of a child in distress. But Raducanu's reaction drew some unsympathetic headlines that portrayed her as an indifferent ice queen.
One such headline stated 'Tennis champ calls for crying child to be ejected', which could be perceived as a true reflection. But there were more sides to the incident.
There was the chair umpire's reaction, which appeared to chastise the player. It also had an air of 'what do you want me to do about it?'.
'Kick the child out of the stadium' also seemed, at best, a misplaced choice of words when the player simply pointed out that the crying had been continuing for 10 minutes.
Emma Raducanu serves against Aryna Sabalenka during their match at the Cincinnati Open. Photograph:Tennis is a sport where umpires routinely warn the spectators not to make noise when the ball is in play and to follow certain rules.
They are asked not to take flash photography, make sure their phones are on silent, clap at appropriate moments and only leave their seats during a break in the play or during changeover.
At Wimbledon, stewards are dotted around the stadium courts to enforce respectful behaviour towards the players.
Given that the umpire knew the etiquette, it is fair to ask why a delicate approach was not made to the man or woman in charge of the baby. It didn't have to get to a stage where Raducanu felt obliged to make her point.
The player was not asking for a child to be kicked anywhere, merely that the spectator norms be observed as she went about trying to win valuable ranking points and the $1.12 million (€960,000) winner's prize. That's right, she was at work.
A similar thing happened in the 2018 Australian Open during a match between Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic.
Their evening quarter-final was halted for more than a minute as a baby began crying in the crowd shortly after 10pm. Nadal was about to serve during a third-set tiebreaker.
The players initially persevered with the distraction, but the game had to be paused when the crying intensified. Commentating on the match, Jim Courier said: 'This is when a player wants a chair umpire to ask for the baby to be removed. Neither of these guys want to play with that.'
The four-time Grand Slam winner then appeared to question the parenting skills of those with the child.
'What's a baby doing awake at ten o'clock at night anyway?' he asked.
It happened again at the Australian Open in 2019 during a match between Dan Evans and Roger Federer, who joked the incident away.
Federer, who was leading 7-6, 2-1 while on serve, was about to toss the ball into the air. But Evans interrupted and asked Federer 'are you happy (to keep playing)?'
Unflappable, Federer replied: 'You tell me. I'm okay this side. It's okay.' Evans then had the crowd laughing when he quipped: 'I'm probably going to do a lot of running, so . . .'
The baby then fell silent as the pair continued.
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With Raducanu, that did not happen, which brought the issue around to the person who took a child to a tennis tournament and allowed it to cry for 10 minutes. This was discussed in the context of temperatures reaching a humid 32 degrees. A player had collapsed in a previous match.
Researchers say they have found that leaving infants to cry has no impact on their behavioural development or their attachment to their mother, but it may help them develop self-control.
But in the middle of a match in the Cincinnati Open? Raducanu was within her rights to speak up. Had the umpire been more mindful of the players, she could have intervened sooner.
And the guardians of the crying child? Maybe they need to be made aware of the other people around them and feel less entitled.