THESCAN SPORT – A growing number of professionals on the men’s and women’s circuits are using the opportunity offered to sign the camera to convey messages, political or not.
It is one of the most tenacious traditions of modern tennis. That of having the camera signed by the winner of a match, using a felt-tip pen stretched by the cameraman. Born in France in the 90s, it has now been exported to most countries in the world. The original idea is to obtain the player’s autograph, written upside down and then turned over by a mirror effect to be visible to viewers. But the purpose has been twisted back and forth over the past two decades.
Just this Sunday at the Australian Open, two players were not satisfied with a vulgar signature on the plexiglass plate. Karen Khachanov, Russian player of Armenian origin, first split a message of support for Artsakhtsi, these Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh victims of a blockade by Azerbaijan. “Be strong, Artsakh“Writes the 19th player in the world. In a lighter register, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas meanwhile sent a mark of sympathy to the Australian people. “Hi Hi Hi“, can we read in blue marker, in reference to the local accent, the “Aussie slang“, which makes pronounce the “i” like the “Hi».
Pioneer Maria Sharapova
Because why would players be satisfied with a boring autograph in front of the opportunity of such a forum? Hundreds of thousands or even millions of viewers watch live match broadcasts around the world. The potential impact is enormous. And the Russian Maria Sharapova is one of the first to have grasped the interest. “Tweet me“, she wrote in 2013 after a victory at the Indian Wells tournament.
Within the hour, she obtained 3,000 additional followers to her existing base of 140,000 on the social network. She justifies this gesture by the boredom of classic signatures. But she more likely felt the opportunity to nurture her brand. “Who knows ?“, she writes in the next round. More enigmatic… In Madrid a few weeks later, she reacted to the clichés of a paparazzo who surprised her in the company of the Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, her lover at the time: “How did you find us?“In October 2018, Malek Jaziri even dares a real commercial operation in favor of his country:”Visit Tunisia».
Against war, weapons and plastic pollution
Marketing interest therefore, but also political interest, as illustrated by Khachanov’s message. Like rock stars who distil messages of peace between two songs in concert, players sometimes allow themselves committed statements. Thus the Russian Andrey Rublev, who from the start of the invasion of Ukraine demanded that there be “no more warduring a tournament in Dubai. From the height of her 18 years, and in line with her illustrious elder Serena Williams, the young American Coco Gauff speaks out on the subject of mass killings in the United States. “Peace. End Gun Violence“, she urges after her victory in the semi-finals of the 2022 edition of Roland Garros, a week after a massacre in a Texas school. In 2019 in Indian Wells, Austrian Dominic Thiem, committed to environmental issues, said he played “for the oceans».
Obviously, not all diversions have a political or marketing aim. Quoted above, Stefanos Tsitsipas has made post-match signings his specialty. His history with the cameras, however, does not begin in the best way. After his victory in the first round of the 2019 edition of Roland Garros, the Greek knocked down the plexiglass, which broke. A few months earlier in Sofia, he grabbed the marker but, like a writer, was suddenly taken by the syndrome of the blank page. More recently, here he is asking a viewer how to spell “Lads», in order to send a message to the Turinese public. “I don’t know, I’m English!“, answers the spectator. Missed !
In more than twenty years, we will have seen everything. The marker that does not work for Stanislas Wawrinka. The felt that explodes for Rafael Nadal. The signature with two markers at the same time for Roger Federer. With three markers at the same time for Novak Djokovic. A simple triangle for Nick Kyrgios, a square for Grigor Dimitrov, and a strange drawing that looks like a penis for Taylor Fritz, who later explains that he wanted “draw a padlock“. And whatever the message, the viewer appreciates, and the tradition lives on. The television channels then recover the signed plexiglass to sell them for the benefit of charities. For the good cause.
