The Siu is Magoo, But Can We Yip and Yahoo?
DYOR Dave
Although it’s only been a few days of the Australian Open, the Aussie crowd is already putting its unique twist on the 150-year-old game.
Along with the usual cheers and boos, many fans attending are now yelling out “Siu,” which was popularised by Cristiano Ronaldo in his goal celebrations.
While scallywag behaviour is nothing new to the Aussie Open, players are beginning to voice their frustration due to the similarity between siu and boo, which they claim impedes their game.
It’s rare in the modern-day to hear professional athletes having a whinge about getting booed, and it seems Tennis is one of the only modern sports that looks down upon crowd interference.
It’s almost a national tradition in Australia to attend an NRL match and scream your lungs out for your own team, or against the other team, yet no one bats an eyelid at footy fans yelling insults you wouldn’t want your children to hear.
How many game-winning sideline conversions did Johnathan Thurston kick while 10 dribblers in the front row behind him did their absolute best to distract him?
Crowd pressure is a key factor in becoming a professional athlete in almost every sport, from AFL to cricket, basketball, baseball, and NFL, yet Tennis and Golf appear to be the only two where crowd silence is enforced.
Not even scantilly clad models could distract free-throw master Larry Bird
Both Tennis and Golf have traditions steeped in upper-class British society, where sport was seen as a noble contest between gentlemen, and both still retain many of those traditions today.
While there are practical reasons for compulsory crowd silence, like in many Olympic sports where athletes need to hear a starting gun, most sports have encouraged excited crowds to cheer and shout during matches.
Players like Nick Kyrgios, who encourage rowdy crowd behaviour and use it to fuel them, are becoming more common, and perhaps it’s time that the game itself moved into the future.
In his post-game conference after defeating Kyrgios, Daniil Medvedev passive-aggressively complained that the booing (or siuing) put him off his game.
Are we really accepting a professional athlete whining about the crowd influencing his game? Surely as the #2 seed in the competition he’s able to deal with a bit of a distraction.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for the “Siu” chant to become national canon, I find it obnoxious and derivative. I’d rather see a homegrown war cry catch on, like “yeww.”
But the fact remains that Tennis fans get excited, and if they want to vocally express that excitement, (in a non-discriminatory way) then I say it’s play on.
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