Wimbeldon 2021

[LP]

I can appreciate where LP is coming from. Novak is merely a winner, and unworthy of the title "Champion", because of the medical timeouts, injuring lines people by recklessly hitting balls, party during covid etc. And whilst some of those antics are regrettable, they need to be viewed in a larger body of work IMO.

I think the term Champion is too easily issued by the media, for me to be a Champion you need the whole package, you can't win on court but be an a55hole everywhere else and still be a Champion!

McEnroe winner but not Champion, Federer winner and Champion, Nadal winner and Champion??, Connors winner but not Champion, after her Naomi Osaka dummy spit I'm not sure Serena Williams is a Champion. Sampras, Borg, Agassi, Lendl, Court, Navratilova, Graf, Cawley, etc., etc.. Some are unequivocally Champions, some perhaps not!

I suppose if all fans care about is winning and not how a sport's role model will conduct themselves then they are all Champions, but it's clear then we  as fans do not hold them all to the same standard. Which seems hypocritical when we lambaste them at other times for human foibles. 

So I'd assert the Champion moniker is far too easily issued, winners no doubt, Champions well it perhaps depends on personal values.

We could make similar comparisons in our own sport, Barassi, Jesaulenko, Matthews, Nichols, Cable, Ablett Snr, DiPierdomenico, Flower, Bourke, Dyer, Williams, Silvagni, Lockett, Carey. All winners no doubt about it, some are the best I have seen, but all Champions, not by a long way!