Madrid Open Organizers Made Fritz And Paolini Look Bad And That's Not What Tennis Needs

The Madrid Open organizers recently posted a video, which made Taylor Fritz and Jasmine Paolini face plenty of backlash for their behavior, and that's the last thing the sport needs at the moment.

Tennis, like many other sports, is more or less dependent on the players being popular. While there are many hardcore fans who enjoy watching any match, the majority have their favorite player or a group of players whom they enjoy watching. Some of the most devoted fans often travel around the world to support their players.

Oftentimes, the most popular players are those who are the most successful, but also those who have a personality that attracts the fans. At the same time, it's really difficult for fans to know what their favorites are really like, since they mostly get to see them competing on the court.

With the growth of social media, the players themselves, but also the tournament organizers, and the ATP and WTA have many more chances to showcase players' personalities to help the sport grow further.

Many tournament organizers, as well as the ATP and WTA, have been doing that with various challenges that await tennis players during the media days ahead of tournaments. Most recently, they attempted to hit a hole-in-one at the Madrid Open, a challenge that Casper Ruud, who is a passionate golfer, really enjoyed.

But the tournament organizers in Madrid prepared one more video that made it to social media. Tennis couple Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur teamed up with Irish comedian Sean Burke in a hidden camera prank called "The Bad Tour Guide." (The video can be viewed below.)

Burke introduced himself as a guide hired by the tournament to help tennis players make their travelling more pleasant. At most of the tournaments, tennis players are provided with cars to be driven from the venue to their hotels.

However, the idea was for Burke to be as annoying as possible to make players have funny reactions. Boulter and De Minaur sometimes communicated with Burke through his earpiece, and those who were pranked in this video were Taylor Fritz, Jasmine Paolini, Casper Ruud, Mirra Andreeva, Daria Kasatkina, Emma Navarro, Grigor Dimitrov, and Alex Michelsen.

Throughout the video, Burke comes up with different lies about the most famous venues in Madrid and tries to annoy the players. Of course, that is part of the prank, and some players had funny reactions to those moments.

However, there were also those who didn't seem to be in the best mood. Understandably, not all tennis players are extroverted, and at the end of the day, the car provided by the tournament organizers is a taxi that should get them from point A to point B.

Think about yourself when you get into a taxi, you're not in the mood to talk with the driver all the time, even if they are the most chatty person ever.

And that's something that happened in the case of Fritz and Paolini as well. The highest-ranked American on the ATP Tour showed no interest in talking to Burke, and he politely showed that by putting his earphones on.

On top of that, Fritz also mentions during the conversation that he was jet-lagged, as he didn't play any tournament in Europe prior to the Madrid Open, so he likely arrived in Madrid shortly before the prank on him was recorded, and understandably, might not have been in the mood to talk.

Paolini, who has one of the most bubbly personalities around the Tour, also didn't seem to be too excited about the "tour guide." At one point, she said, "How do I switch this guy off?" in Italian to the person travelling with her.

Some tennis fans didn't like Fritz's and Paolini's behavior, likely not understanding their circumstances. That's why many in the comments called out Paolini for her "fake behavior" and "poor character," with many also calling Fritz an "a**hole."

However, the last thing that the sport needs right now is for its players to be painted in this picture, especially in a situation in which they were unaware that they were being recorded.

There is certainly something that the tournament organizers could have done to avoid this unnecessary hate that these players now receive because of this prank.

Of course, recording this kind of prank can be funny, and many responses, such as those of Andreeva and Ruud, certainly entertained those watching.

However, those taking care of the post-production certainly don't need to use all the recorded material, and instead, try making the video interesting because of the funny moments, and not making it viral because of the negative reactions that players had.

It's much easier to trigger a negative reaction in someone, which is something that people responsible for creating this content should avoid in the future if they have an interest in growing the sport.