Childish factor

Coco Gauff, currently ranked number three in the world, is upset that her smashing up a racquet after her lose was captured on a camera and then broadcast. Is she being childish about being childish?

There are millions of children who would like to play tennis but can’t given the cost of a racquet and would be delighted to get one of her castoffs, although not the one we saw.

There are a few who smash racquets and they should be stopped. First racquet — keep using that racquet for that game, second occurrence-whole set and third time, it’s goodbye. There will be few occurrences once they exit tournaments for displays of anger.

There is also another childish factor to fix, all sports should treat equivalent offenders the same — send them home. If I did the same I would also expect to be spanked but that’s old fashioned thinking although it worked as I still have my racquet from the 1970s.

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia