When 19-year-old Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard won her quarterfinal match against 14th seed Ana Ivanovic at the Australian Open this week, she became the first Canadian women to do advance to the semifinals of a Grand Slam in 30 years.
The win has reportedly guaranteed Bouchard a spot in the top 20 by the end of next week and puts her in realistic contention for the singles title. It’s quite an achievement for the former junior world champion, who was previously ranked number 30 in the tournament.
And yet when Bouchard walked over to court-side commentator Sam Smith for her post-match interview, she was met with a question about which celebrity she would date “if she could pick anyone in the world”. As you do, when a person has just achieved their greatest career milestone to date.
Here’s how it went down:
I’m not sure what other questions the athlete was asked before and after the Bieber question because the Australian Open did not upload that part of the interview to YouTube. But I do know this.
When Roger Federer walked off the court after his match against Andy Murray last night, no one asked him which celebrities are on his ‘free pass’ list. And when Rafael Nadal won his match yesterday, he wasn’t hit with a question about which woman he’d like to give him a post-match rub down.
Why then, is it okay to ask Bouchard about her celebrity crushes? Is it because she’s a young female? Is it because she’s attractive? Why not focus on how Bouchard felt when the umpire said ‘game, set and match’. Or how she’s feeling about going up against 4th seed Li Na in her next match.
Or you know, any question about TENNIS.
The Australian Open is a tournament that’s very much known for it’s equal treatment of women (it’s one of the few tournaments where female players are awarded the same amount of prize money as the men). Let’s not undo that good work with the kind of questions that should only be asked of a Grade 6 pen pal.
Was it inappropriate to ask Bouchard about men rather than her tennis game?
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Perhaps all interview questions are idiotic, but that's no excuse for this ridiculous question. Commentators are very often morons!
Well, for starters she is single, talented, prominent and attractive. The questions come from the host broadcaster, not the Australian Open. There are obviously a lot of people who asked this question through an app they have, so they thought it was okay to broadcast it to the world.
Roger Federer's wife is pregnant again. It would seem a strange line of questioning to ask who he would sleep with when she is just metres away. They have asked him about the pregnancy. They also harassed Raphael Nadal on several occasions about his wife never attending the event. To then ask him who he would rub down is ridiculous. They asked Dominika Cibulkova about how she isn't married after years of being engaged. They asked Australians Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis about their love lives. They are constantly focusing on the players partners no matter what the sex. Although they seem to shy away from focusing on open lesbian players like Casey Dellacqua as much. They seem to be unaware how to handle it.
So as far as the Australian Open not broadcasting the full interview on their youtube channel. Guess what? They only post a small percentage of highlights of post match on court interviews. Most of the post match on court interviews are fairly bland and we could really do without. Why don't you make that your issue?