The girls from the USA did not expect such support from their own federation before the important start.
On the eve of the first Grand Slam tournament of this season, the American Tennis Federation decided to support its athletes in an unusual way.
They decided to send the girls to the main competition of the winter using a controversial artistic technique. The American stars did not appreciate the approach and publicly criticized the initiators of the action.
The Tennis Association had to urgently remove pictures starring Cori Gauff and Jessica Pegula.
Some of the favorites
Athletes from the USA love the Australian tournament, so every year they are expected to at least participate in the finals. Last year, for the first time in a long time, the Americans lost all their representatives in the quarterfinals, so this season the Stars and Stripes are going to rehabilitate themselves.
At the forefront of attention, of course, are the fourth and fifth rackets of the world Cori Gauff and Jessica Pegula. Moreover, the leaders of the national team will perform together in doubles. The girls started the year differently: 19-year-old Gauff won in Auckland, while the more experienced Pegula withdrew from her semi-final match in Adelaide against Russian Daria Kasatkina due to digestive problems.
Cori Gauff with the title at the US Open 2023 / Photo: © Hannah Peters / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
However, in Melbourne both are rated by experts as favorites. The second victory at the Grand Slam tournament is especially expected from Cori, who fell in love with the whole world in the fall after her home triumph at the US Open 2023. In Melbourne she has already completed two rounds, and Pegula confidently won her opening match.
“The worst thing I’ve ever seen”
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) was preoccupied with how to support its athletes on a foreign continent. They were inspired by the popular turn-of-the-century animated series “The Wild Thornberrys” and depicted tennis players in the appropriate style. Attached to the organization’s published message was a poster featuring Gauff, Pegula, Emma Navarro, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul as cartoon characters.
The nuance is that the animated product was made in a caricature style, so all the original characters look, to put it mildly, asymmetrical and deliberately rude. This approach was transferred to American tennis stars.
– The worst thing I’ve ever seen. The cartoonist simply decided to make us all look terrible,” Gauff wrote on her page on one of the social networks and accompanied the text with crying emoticons.
Cory Gauff / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
According to Corey, the organization chose the wrong style to inspire athletes. 29-year-old Pegula also agrees with her.
– We are so ugly! – Jessica responded.
The public outcry surrounding the story forced the tennis association to remove the photo. How great was the surprise of others when, at a press conference, Corey explained that it was all a joke.
“People thought I was serious and got angry about it.” “I realized that humor is very different,” the world No. 4 commented with a laugh.
According to Gauff, everyone inside the team laughed at this picture for a long time, and Corey herself, as a joke, sent a message to the USTA and asked why this particular cartoon was chosen. But there was no answer.
Americans can only hope that the controversial advertising campaign has not unsettled the young tennis player. But next time the local federation should think twice before publishing such content about its star players.
2024-01-17 11:10:53
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