Travis Kelce, the American football champion and current partner of pop star Taylor Swift, had to be put off while watching the US Open final between Italian Jannik Sinner and American darling Taylor Fritz. “I tried to annoy the Italian, to annoy him, to make him nervous,” he admitted a few days later. During the match, the crowd increasingly supported the local hero, hoping that the American would eventually lift the trophy, an event that had not happened since Andy Roddick’s victory in 2003. “For the second time I went to watch a tennis match. The match was very quiet, and when there is silence you want to say something,” the athlete said. “I am not a quiet person, I have never been quiet. At school, I was always the one who said something clever or tried to make everyone laugh when things were quiet. So I wanted to annoy the wrong Italian, the world’s number one.” But in tennis there are rules that must be respected: even if the Flushing Meadows crowd is not exactly respectful of etiquette, there are some lines that cannot be crossed. And so does Kelce, tight end The NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs had to adapt: ”I wanted to help create the field factor. I behaved well, I was respectful: if I had exaggerated, they would have asked me to leave. I only let myself loose during the breaks when there was loud music.” Sinner swept his opponent 3-0: it is unlikely that a whistle or who knows what else could have taken the game on other paths than the Italian’s victory.
Cover photo: EPA/CJ Gunter
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