Climate change is upon us, and people are protesting, but tennis fans don't like it when they do it on a tennis court.
So that meant that protesters were booed when they stopped play between Taylor Fritz and Andy Murray in Washington at the 2023 Citi Open. If you're going to protest, you should generally do it so many people see it.
In Washington on Friday, the best spot was the Andy Murray and Taylor Fritz match, and that's exactly what happened. It's the protester's job to ensure that their protest is seen by a lot of eyeballs, and it was.
The packed stadium didn't like it very much, though, as they booed the protester as they were escorted off the premise by police. The match was stopped after protesters threw large tennis balls onto the court and held up signs saying “Climate Disaster & “End Fossil Fuels”.
The match itself was only paused for about 5 minutes so it wasn't a huge deal but we've seen more and more of these happen on tennis courts and there are many fans who aren't happy. The ATP Tour has made some commitments to become more eco-friendly, as they say, but the move was mocked by Reilly Opelka as good PR.
The sport is in a tough spot because it features a lot of aeroplane travel to keep going so it's never going to be eco-friendly, no matter how much they try. There are far greater sources of pollution of course but when you have something that's not essential for life in any capacity, people are going to point out the hypocrisy in claiming that it only contributes little.
In any case, protests aren't going to stop. It happened at Roland Garros last year, it happened at Wimbledon this year, and it's going to keep happening in the future. Most of these protesters are deeply passionate about this, and they won't stop. After July 4th officially became the hottest day ever recorded, perhaps they shouldn't.
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