RESPECT ATHLETES: MEDIA MUST DO BETTER

MELBOURNE — Australian Open semi-finalist Ben Shelton has called for greater respect toward players in on-court interviews, criticizing broadcasters for what he described as “disrespectful” treatment of professional athletes.

Shel­ton advanced to his first Grand Slam semi-final on Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 22, defeat­ing Italy’s Loren­zo Sonego in four sets at Rod Laver Are­na. How­ev­er, his vic­to­ry was marred by com­ments from Aus­tralian broad­cast­er and for­mer Davis Cup play­er John Fitzger­ald dur­ing the on-court inter­view.

Fitzger­ald remarked that no one would cheer for Shel­ton in his semi-final match, regard­less of whether his oppo­nent was defend­ing cham­pi­on Jan­nik Sin­ner or Australia’s Alex De Minaur. Shel­ton brushed off the com­ment at the time, jok­ing­ly invit­ing fans to boo or “throw stuff” at him if they want­ed to sup­port the local favorite.

But in his post-match press con­fer­ence, Shel­ton took a more seri­ous tone.

“I’ve been a lit­tle bit shocked this week with how play­ers have been treat­ed by the broad­cast­ers,” Shel­ton said. “It’s not just about one com­ment or one moment. There’s been a pat­tern of neg­a­tiv­i­ty that’s real­ly dis­ap­point­ing.”

Shel­ton also ref­er­enced com­ments made ear­li­er in the tour­na­ment about Novak Djokovic. Aus­tralian broad­cast­er Tony Jones had called the 23-time Grand Slam cham­pi­on “over-rat­ed” and a “has-been,” prompt­ing Djokovic to skip the cus­tom­ary on-court inter­view after his fourth-round win over Jiri Lehec­ka. Djokovic demand­ed a pub­lic apol­o­gy, which had not been issued at the time of writ­ing.

The issue, Shel­ton stressed, extends beyond any sin­gle play­er or inci­dent. He recount­ed a remark made to him after defeat­ing 38-year-old Gael Mon­fils in the fourth round: “Some­one said to me, ‘Hey, Mon­fils is old enough to be your dad. Maybe he is your dad.’”

Shel­ton also addressed Fitzgerald’s semi-final com­ments, say­ing, “It may be true that the crowd’s not on my side, but I don’t think it’s respect­ful to say that to my face, espe­cial­ly from some­one I’ve nev­er met before.”

He empha­sized the role of broad­cast­ers in sup­port­ing ath­letes and grow­ing the sport. “Play­ers work hard to reach these moments. Broad­cast­ers should be cel­e­brat­ing that instead of tear­ing peo­ple down. There’s been a lot of unnec­es­sary neg­a­tiv­i­ty, and it needs to change.”

Ten­nis Aus­tralia, which orga­nizes the tour­na­ment, has yet to com­ment on the con­tro­ver­sy. How­ev­er, Shelton’s remarks high­light a broad­er dis­cus­sion about pro­fes­sion­al­ism and respect in sports media, with many fans and play­ers ral­ly­ing behind the young American’s call for change.