We all lay stress on “thinking before saying”. Well, with the advancement of social media, what they should be laying stress on is: think before you tweet. Tennys Sandgren, an American tennis star, had to learn this lesson the hard way, soon after he had come on to the scene. The 26-year-old must have been ecstatic upon defeating the fifth ranked player in the world to progress into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, but he must have certainly detested he scrutiny that followed. Sandgren had followed a number of prominent figures of the alt-right mindset and retweeted a number of their tweets also. Racism and the “Spirit Cooking” campaign were some of the things that he had tweeted on during the Trump – Hilary election bout.
Instead of apologizing on holding views that were based on pure racism and hatred, Sandgren resorted to cheap excuses when inquired about them in a press conference. On top of that, he even chose to delete all of his tweets, in an attempt to fulfill his “version of a clean start”. Will somebody tell Mr. Sandgren that’s not how “clean starts” work for the sophisticated and rational population of the world? If not, then he’ll certainly be in for a rude awakening—courtesy of the French media—when he flies off for the French Open in a few months’ time!
