A ball boy
revealed the most pleasant and least pleasant players on the courts, including
Novak Djokovic,
Nick Kyrgios, and especially
Alexander Zverev. The fan shared
their impressions on Reddit and mentioned several ATP and WTA players.
The ball
boy has been working for several years at
Indian Wells and mentioned some
negative situations he experienced with some players. First, he mentioned
Sascha Zverev as 'the worst' and mentioned that Alicia Parks spoke to them
using bad words:
"I've
had so many really cool and crazy experiences, I'm happy to share them with
anyone who's curious. The worst was Zverev, who yelled at me for giving him the
wrong ball even though they all looked the same. He was losing.
"Kyrgios
almost hit my friend in the face with his racket after the match with Nadal.
Norrie and Zverev himself both yelled at a boy with Down syndrome.
Alycia Parks
kept telling us to give her the (bad word!) ball."
Coco Gauff at 2023 Indian Wells
The ball
boy also mentioned
Adrian Mannarino as there are comments he has heard about
him being unpleasant, although he acknowledged that he has never been on the
court with him: “I've heard that Mannarino is unpleasant, but I've never been
on the court with him.”
Other main
targets mentioned by the ball boy were Novak Djokovic and the young star Ben
Shelton: “Shelton is rude and dismissive off the court, somewhat self-centered
when he plays. Djokovic gets impatient when he loses and sometimes lashes out
at the ball boys, but usually he does it at the umpires. There are also players
who hit the ball boys for their behavior on the court."
"Finally,
he made a list of the players who have seemed the friendliest to him,
highlighting among them
Coco Gauff,
Stan Wawrinka,
Jannik Sinner, and Maria
Sakkari:
"The
best is Coco Gauff, she asked us to make a TikTok with her, but they were so
bad that she never published them. The nicest and kindest are Stan Wawrinka,
Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner,
Alex De Minaur,
Maria Sakkari, Coco Gauff, Emma
Navarro,
Rafael Nadal,
Casper Ruud,
Emil Ruusuvuori,
Ons Jabeur, Matteo
Berrettini,
Hubert Hurkacz,
Ugo Humbert and
Gael Monfils.
“They are
only nice when they win Novak Djokovic,
Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev, Andrey
Rublev, Davidovich Fokina, Nick Kyrgios and
Fabio Fognini,” he added.