'Cotton Eye Joe' and a pretend bee bothers Tsitsipas in weird tennis … – Lob and Smash
(Photo by Aaron Doster/Getty Images)
The things you might see on a tennis court can be pretty amazing. And that is not even including the matches themselves. In the past couple of weeks, we have seen oddities such as a fan buzzing like a bee at Stefanos Tsitsipas in his second-round match at the Western and Southern Open and the song “Cotton Eye Joe” breaking out in the middle of the National Bank Open semifinal between Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula.
In the Tsitsipas situation, the Greek player was facing American Ben Shelton when a fan behind Tsitsipas started buzzing like a bee to try to distract Tsitsipas before he served the ball. However, the fan was doing this must have been pretty good because Tsitsipas actually halted his attempt at serve a few times before seemingly figuring out what was happening.
Tsitsipas walked over to the chair umpire and said a very uncommon phrase by a player to an umpire, “There’s a person imitating a bee behind me.” Followed by, “I want her out. She needs to go.” It needs to be noted as well that Tsitsipas kept his calm the entire time.
But either the umpire was too slow in resolving the situation after he said he would take care of the matter or Tsitsipas just wanted to settle the issue himself, he walked over to the stands and spoke with the crowd. The fan, who honestly shouldn’t have done what she did – maybe she had too many drinks? – was asked to leave.
“There’s a person imitating a bee behind me” 🐝
The most bee-zarre thing you’ll see today 😂#CincyTennis @steftsitsipas pic.twitter.com/t2W50fvo51
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 16, 2023
At least the lady wasn’t singing the awfulness of the song that is “Cotton Eye Joe.” This abomination broke out during a semifinal match between Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula at the National Bank Open last week in Montreal. During the second-set tie-break, with Pegula up a set, and during a point, “Cotton Eye Joe” suddenly blared out over the speakers. (Also, as you can see from the X post that follows, Swiatek hit a ridiculous shot when the music started.)
The huge tune "Cotton eye Joe" being launched in the middle of a point between Swiatek and Pegula 😭😭😭pic.twitter.com/yipSBiexVq
— We Are Tennis (@WeAreTennis) August 13, 2023
I am unsure exactly why the song started playing, but hopefully, the person in charge got a stern talking-to. Pegula lost the tie-break but did come back to win the match in the third set. I doubt she was falling asleep to “Cotton Eye Joe” that night, though.
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