Fans accuse Roger Federer of "sexism" for stunt during mixed doubles match
Roger Federer can do no wrong in most tennis fans’ eyes. However, with a recent video of him playing in the Hopman Cup earlier this month started circulating on social media, it appears that the Swiss maestro may have upset a few.
In the video, Federer is seen playing mixed doubles with partner Belinda Bencic against American pair of Jack Sock and CoCo Vandeweghe. During a particular rally in the second set, after Federer serves to Sock, the two begin hitting the ball back and forth across the court between themselves.
After a few hits, Vandeweghe realises that she is not required to take part in the rally and proceeds to take a seat on the ground and soon, Bencic follows suit. While the crowd see the funnier side of this, Vandeweghe decides to walk off the court and let Federer and Sock continue. Bencic, too, proceeds to do the same.
Eventually, after a couple of trick shots from Federer, Sock wins the point and throws his arms up in the air in jubilation.
Here is the video:
The crowd in the house saw the lighter side of the incident and started laughing. Clearly, it was aimed to entertain them. However, Federer and Sock’s decision to exclude their female partners did not go down too well with some of the fans on social media.
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the incident:
The opinion on Twitter is, of course, always divided and there were many arguing that it was only an exhibition match and Federer and Sock were having a little bit of fun with their partners that in no way should be branded as 'sexism'.