Tennis has always been considered a 'gentlemen's sport' on the same level as golf. Repeated requests from the referee to "Quiet, please" have come to symbolise that spectators are expected to remain calm even when the drama is at its peak.
Whereas football fans cheer, scream and drink in the stands while the players display their emotions and personalities on the court, the tennis crowd is the complete opposite. Tennis fans are traditionally expected to be quiet during the game and only make noise between points, although the unwritten rules are certainly not always followed during US Open and Davis Cup matches, for example.
Similarly, players are expected to behave with a certain grace, elegance, maturity and responsibility. The DGI website states: "Tennis is a gentleman's sport, i.e. you behave properly, talk properly, show consideration, help each other and don't throw the racket!". Many examples could be given to show that this image does not correspond to reality, but nevertheless, an aura of decency still surrounds the sport of tennis.
The decency of tennis is being challenged
That decency is now being challenged by a number of tennis stars who believe there should be room for "trash-talk" in tennis. In tennis?! At the risk of being described as blatantly old-fashioned, I have to say that I lean more towards the ideals of DGI than the new tones of tennis.
Any new development in sport is not necessarily positive and I have to say that we are heading down the wrong track. Don't get me wrong, I don't find it hard to see this happening, because tennis is in a pioneering period where many of its unwritten rules are being questioned, but trash-talk is not an element I can condone in tennis.
But perhaps we need to pause for a moment and get clear on what "trash talk" actually is.
Trash talk is a form of boasting or banter that is commonly used a lot in competitive situations, such as sporting events. It is generally intended to intimidate the opponent or make the athlete lose his or her temper, but it can also have a humorous and light-hearted element in the form of imagery, puns and teasing.
This technique was first used systematically by boxing legend Muhammad Ali. but since then it has become commonplace for top athletes in virtually all disciplines to use it to annoy opponents and upset their mental balance in order to jeopardise their performance.
At an amateur level, it is generally frowned upon, especially in youth competitions, but in the NBA, for example, trash-talking has dimensions of genuine psychological warfare that some players excel at.
Gauff: 'If I trash-talk, people go crazy on Twitter'
And now, some of tennis' most established stars believe that trash-talking should have a place in the sport. Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, the world number three and six respectively, believe that trash-talking would make tennis more interesting and attract more people to the sport.
"I think it would make the sport interesting. I think that this is something that would bring in more fans. Pretty much every other sport has it. In college tennis, it's a lot of trash-talking," Gauff told the WTA Insider podcast.
"I didn't want to take it personally. I played other sports when I was growing up, I played basketball and ran track. In those sports you trash talk a lot and I was the only girl on the boys' team. I got a lot of trash talk thrown at me and I had to fight back," says Gauff, who also points out that tennis culture sets some boundaries.
"If I did that, people would go crazy on Twitter. But if Caitlin Clark (a basketball player) does it, people love it. And there's nothing wrong with that. It makes the sport interesting. But it's the social norms of our sport that make it different," adds Gauff.
Spaniard Paula Badosa (world number 33) also sees a future for trash-talk in tennis.
"It would be completely different. We are not used to that. I mean, traditionally tennis is polite, but why not? It could be a change for the new generation and it could be different and fun," says Badosa.
"I'm not sure how the women would react because they usually take things a bit more personally, but for the men I think it would be obvious"
Kasatkina: 'We are not from the US, so we are not used to it'
Frances Tiafoe, currently ranked 11th in the world, is also in favour of opening up to trash talk in tennis. "Besides keeping some traditions in Wimbledon, I think we should start changing things to attract more younger fans to the sport of tennis," says Tiafoe, who also favours the idea that spectators should not necessarily stay quiet during matches.
"I think fans should be able to come and go as they please and move around and talk during matches. Imagine going to a basketball game and not saying anything," Tiafoe told Forbes.
However, there are also players like Russian Daria Kastakina (ranked No. 8 in the world) who are certainly not in favour of the acceptance of trash-talking in the tennis world. "For me, tennis is a little different. I don't think trash-talk will work, in my opinion. I think tennis is a little bit special. We're not from the US, so we're not used to it. I've always been educated in the way that tennis is an intelligent sport," she told The Tennis Channel.
It would be naive to think that trash-talk does not already exist in tennis. In any sport, athletes try to "get into the head of the opponent" and disrupt the mental preparations for a match.
In Rod Laver's heyday 60 years ago, trash talk would have been unthinkable, but times have changed, and John McEnroe and Jimmy Conners in particular shook up the perception of how tennis players should behave on the court.
Even back then, there were microphones around the court that picked up everything that was said, and that's why it's also evident today that players sometimes throw less-than-polite words at each other during the change of ends.
There is no doubt that it adds something to the sport. Tennis is not for coiffed Sunday school boys. It's a fight to the death, with money and prestige at stake, and with the entry of multi-national moneyed sponsors into the sport, the rivalry has intensified.
The sport of tennis is certainly not short on emotion, drama and big moments. And banter, friendly or not so friendly, is already a big part of the tournaments, but to systematise trash-talk and almost encourage players to seek confrontation is a clear double fault.
