Etiquette hits the net as Gentlemen’s Singles turn ugly

I’ve got a confession to make about etiquette. It involves Stefanos Tsitsipas but none of it was his fault. The Greek framed a ball high into the stands in his first-round match against Swiss Alexander Ritschard on Tuesday. I saw the trajectory of the ball coming towards me and switched into kerching mode, my mind primed as if this was the 1k crowd catch in Twenty20 cricket.

It was like shelling peas. I even did the Nick Kyrgios “I don’t care look” while casually putting the souvenir in my jacket pocket. Not sure if there’s video evidence out there. You probably don’t care that I didn’t care. But I should have.

Unlike, say, the U.S. Open, in which spectators are permitted to keep balls hit into the stands, most tennis events follow the International Tennis Federation (ITF) rules. Namely, if one of those balls goes into the stands, it is expected that the spectator who retrieves it throws it back. That’s the done thing. It also ties into a very British manner.

A very nice steward in ever so smart gear – a military man but without the big guns – came towards my person with a friendly but firm smile. The smiling assassin reminded me that the item should have been returned to the court. No other words or strong actions were necessary. I felt suitably shamed. An American, more liberal than some of the uptight BBC commentary team, said out loud: “We saw what you did there but we won’t tell anyone.”

So what is happening at this year’s Wimbledon? Etiquette appears to have been eaten up by the stresses of sporting bloodlust. Earlier in the week, Andy Murray exploded with emotion after winning the third set to stay alive against John Isner while the ball boy casually caught the American’s shot before it bounced. Technically, the