The camera focused on the winner, but for the occasion, it would have benefited from focusing on the loser. Once his defeat was recorded in front of Reilly Opelka (6-3, 7-5), Dane Sweeny momentarily disappeared from the screen. Bad loser, the Australian? Quite the opposite. The 183rd player in the world was perfectly willing to shake the American’s hand, except that more than 40 cm separated them.
Sweeny used a chair installed at the edge of the tennis court to place himself at the height of the Floridian giant, perched at a height of 2.11 m. The player, only 1.70 m tall, placed the chair on his side of the net to better greet Opelka (60th), who was waiting, patient and amused, in his half of the field.
Already seen in 2014
This crazy but not unprecedented scene warmed up the Australian public, initially disappointed by the defeat of the regional stage in the first round of this ATP 250 in Brisbane. Opelka and his heavy serves are used to dominating his opponents in terms of size. He is less accustomed to these post-victory humorous traits.
However, in 2014 Dudi Sela already had the idea for this joke. The 1.75m Israeli lost to Ivo Karlovic in Bogota. Despite his booster seat, he still seemed smaller than the tall 2.08m Croatian. Sweeny managed to climb to the height of Opelka. His chair was certainly less low.
