The Sportsmanship Every Junior Tennis Player Needs to See

In the world of sports, the scoreboard often steals the spotlight, highlight shots dominate our social media platforms, and the majority of the time we hear about sportsmanship is when someone is breaking a rule, getting in a fight, or being a terrible example of what sportsmanship is about.

Rarely do we see great examples of athletes being honorable sportspeople. They happen, but they’re never talked about as much.

So if the good stuff is rarely talked about, and the bad stuff and winning get all the coverage, how are we supposed to get our kids to buy into the idea that winning and being famous aren’t the most important things, and that character comes first, if they never see anyone praised for their honorable actions?

Jack Draper got a lot of coverage.

Beatriz Haddad Maia got a lot of coverage.

Harri Heliovaara got a lot of coverage.

Nick Kyrgios is getting hired to commentate at Wimbledon and the US Open.

How about Yosuke Watanuki?

Huh? What did he do?

A few days ago he gave us one of the best moments in tennis sportsmanship in a long time. Every junior tennis player needs to see it, and every coach needs to show it to their academy.

Watanuki (top of the screen) is 2 points away from winning the match. Te (bottom of the screen) hits an approach shot winner down the line, but it’s called out. The chair umpire couldn’t definitively see it so he sticks with the linesman’s call. Watanuki is awarded the point, and now has two match points.

Considering the scoreline, Te understandably pleads to the umpire to overrule the call, but the umpire isn’t budging.

Fortunately, Watanuki ends up overruling the referee and the linesman, saying Te’s shot was in.

Instead of the score being 40-15 and double match point, it’s now 30-30.

At such a critical moment in the match, Watanuki showed what true sportsmanship is all about.

Fortunately, the tennis gods rewarded Watanuki as he ended up winning the match, but there was no guarantee that it would end up that way. At this level, anybody can beat anybody, and comebacks happen all the time. Watanuki is a former top 100 player who is now ranked 267 in the world, and I’m sure there’s a part of him that’s desperate to get back to the top 100. He needs wins more than ever.

Yet, he handled the situation like a total pro, an absolute sportsman, and a role model.

It would also behoove me to mention Sahith Theegala’s wonderful example from this past weekend, where he called a 2 stroke penalty on himself for moving sand in the bunker with his club. It ended up costing him $2.5 million in prize money (click here to read about it).

Watanuki’s sportsmanship, as well as Theegala’s should be a topic at every sporting academy this week, and every dinner table for families involved in youth sports.