Tennis can be a rough, highly competitive game, and it will certainly turn personal on occasion. I can’t say I’ve ever seen the changeover chokehold before, though.
Austrian Tennis Player Chokes Opponent, Proves Austrian Tennis is Hardcore
As Busted Racquet’s Chris Chase explains, this comes from an Austrian league match between Stefan Koubek, the choker, and Daniel Koellerer, the chokee. Koellerer apparently has a bit of a rep as an instigator and a jerk, and started this with some verbal volleying that turned into a racquet slapped out of Koubek’s hand.
But that still doesn’t fully explain the crowd lustily booing Koellerer and cheering Koubek after the match was called. Is there some code of Austrian tennis that makes choking your opponent okay after he insults you? Could Koellerer be that hated a pariah?
Are Austrian tennis fans just more “hardcore” than most?
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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