In a weird, yet somehow unsurprising turn of events, tennis fans booed the idea of the COVID vaccine last night during a post-match speech.
Tennis Australia president Jayne Hrdlicka gave her usual post-final presentation, in which she mentioned the vaccine rollout, which begins today. However, instead of cheering at the idea of a vaccine coming to protect us all from the ‘rona, some fans loudly booed the concept.
“With vaccinations on the way, rolling out in many countries around the world, it’s now a time for optimism and hope for the future,” she said, pausing when the crowd began to boo.
Absolute scenes at tonight’s Australian Open, there, with fans apparently booing “optimism and hope for the future”. pic.twitter.com/vDJX3iKY78
— Matt Armstrong (@matt_armstrong) February 21, 2021
But the booing began again when she thanked the Victorian state government for allowing the event to go ahead.
“Without you we could not have done this.”
It’s unclear what exactly they hoped to achieve with their booing, but it was loud enough to catch international media attention, with tennis fans overseas flocking to social media to point out how weird it is for Aussies to be booing the vaccine, considering how well we’ve handled the ol’ ‘rona in general.
Additionally, it’s an incredibly weird energy from tennis fans considering it was the Australian Open itself that sent Victorians into a third hard lockdown to protect us from the virus.
But it’s hardly surprising that tennis fans may be against the idea of a COVID vaccine considering the fact that Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic has been a pretty polarising figure in the COVID debate.
But hey, at least the tennis is over now and we can *hopefully* never have to deal with the stress of a 5-day lockown so that a bunch of people can whack a little ball around ever again.
