The artist and the gentleman

There seems to be some general consensus about these two guys:

They are the two best volleyers of the open tennis era.

It is difficult to say or gauge who is greater, but we see McEnroe's volley as being smooth and natural while Edberg has a more "textbook" volley, one that is ideal for teaching.

The following quotes from Internet discussion forums say it well:

"We teach the half or low volley as, get your head and eyes down closer to the plane of the ball by bending your knees and trying to keep your racquet head above the wrist, hell, Mac remains almost straight up, drops his racquet head straight down so his hand is at 12 o'clock and the racquet head almost at 6 o'clock, arm almost straight, no back swing, and a swat with a follow thru, and yet it goes where he wants it to. You can't teach that nor try to teach that, the timing required to pull it off time and again, well you need Mac's special gift and yes it is beautiful to watch."

"McEnroe's insight and physical application of thought was gifted beyond any S&Ver i've ever witnessed. Edberg was great, but his was a more "technical" form of the volley, where one would have an easier time learning it than McEnroe's which (aside from what was noted above) was genuine tennis/sports artistry. Few in sports ever reach the artist level, no matter the accomplishments."

True, McEnroe is widely regarded as a serve-as-volley artist indeed. I wonder if it has something to do with his being a south paw.

Another common thing about McEnroe and Edberg is that they are both excellent doubles players. They are the only men to have been ranked No.1 in both singles and doubles since the ATP computer ranking began.

In any case, there is one thing for which there is definitely no comparison between McEnroe and Edberg. Sportsmanship. During McEnroe's career, his behaviour was as outrageous as his talent, earning him the image of the bad boy of tennis, and he was quite fittingly branded as the "Super Brat". Edberg, on the other hand, was the ultimate gentleman, having won the ATP Sportsmanship Award for five times. He was so honoured that the ATP renamed the award the "Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award" in 1996.

Not the most gracious losers

Chinese athletes and sports fans have not always been known to be gracious losers. My own most vivid memory was the 19 May 1985 World Cup football qualifying match between China and Hong Kong. China were the overwhelming favourites before the match, a much stronger team than Hong Kong and needing only a draw to go through to the next round. But after little David defeated the mighty Goliath, a riot broke out outside the Workers Stadium in Beijing. The players and coach were forced into hiding for three whole days as their quarters were surrounded by angry fans.

An even more serious riot broke out after the 2004 Asian Cup Final between China and Japan. Throughout the tournament, which took place in Beijing, fans who were fuelled with anti-Japanese sentiments, had repeatedly booed the Japanese team, burned Japanese flags and surrounded the Japanese team coach. After the match, the protests became all-out riots. Trouble flared outside the stadium and more than 5,000 policemen in riot gear were deployed to restore order.

Obviously, for these fans, the only measure of national pride was winning, not showing the world that the nation could take a painful defeat on the chin.

A 'friendly' basket-brawl match

A couple of days ago, the media showed ugly scenes in the "friendly" basketball match between China and Brazil in Xuchang, China.

The fight was triggered by a foul call against China which was protested by the Chinese players and coach. Play became rough until, finally, open fighting broke out.

The Chinese Basketball Association apologised to the Brazilian side afterwards and said its players are taking time to "deeply reflect". The players were made to attend classes on good sportsmanship.

This was not an isolated case of basketball violence in China. In July 2001, a brawl occurred in a match between China and Lebanon in Shanghai after the final buzzer. Fans threw objects at the Lebanese players, injuring several of them before the fight was broken up by police.

In August 2005, a nasty brawl ended the game in Beijing between China and Puerto Rico prematurely.Two Chinese players rushed off the bench to fight Puerto Rican players who had inflicted a hard foul on a Chinese player. Again, angry fans were involved.

I wonder if back then the players also took time to "deeply reflect" or were made to attend good sportsmanship classes.