[This post was inspired by a great article by Tim Boyle published in June last year for the Sydney Morning Herald. Article link is here.]
Last night, Roger Federer wrapped up the Australian Open with his 20th grand slam title win, at the frankly astonishing age of 36.
It was a five-set affair, with ebbs and flows in the momentum that kept the audience on the edges of their seats, until Federer finally triumphed with a dominant fifth set performance.
Shortly after the broadcast, Channel Ten aired the first episode for its’ new season I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! Prior to this moment, I hadn’t watched a single frame of this show, but they were introducing the… I want to say, contestants…? for the first time, so I let it run for a bit.
After some rather bizarre interactions between an eclectic mix of characters – it all felt sort of forced, and almost discomforting for the viewer – A white SUV pulled up, and a tall, lean young man stepped out, wearing a pair of blue jeans and white shirt, with a camouflage-style ball cap reading ‘BT’. Bernard Tomic, Australia’s 25-year old tennis fallen angel, is participating on the show.
The story of Tomic is fairly well-known here in Australia. A young prodigy, Australia latched on to both Tomic and fellow youngster Nick Kyrgios as the future stars to replace the likes of Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur (I think – I’m not that well versed on this topic). Tomic showed great promise on the court; in 2011, he reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, then only 18 years of age.
Since then, Tomic has experienced a roller-coaster career in terms of success and scandal. His erratic behaviour both on and off the court has angered many figures within the tennis community, while equally entertaining and enraging the Australian public. He’s previously asked for his father to be removed from the stadium during a match, has made comments to journalists… You know what, just see here for his ‘rap sheet’ up to 2016.
At last year’s Wimbledon tournament, Tomic lost in the first round to 30th seed Mischa Zerev in straight sets, 6-4 6-3 6-4. Following the match, Tomic remarked that he ‘felt a little bored’ during proceedings, adding that ‘nothing motivates’ him in recent years. It later came to light that Tomic feigned injury during the same match, for which he was fined $20,000.
Tomic’s remark that he was ‘bored’ during this match was derided in the media: See here, here and/or here for articles denouncing Tomic’s words and actions over the issue. Whipping up public fury aimed at a spoilt individual who is seen to capitalise on large amounts of monetary rewards for playing sport isn’t difficult to do, and makes perfect business sense in a competitive media market.
And so, here I was, sitting in my friends’ living room watching Tomic step down into a nameless location in rural Africa to participate in a game show presumably designed to manufacture drama and excitement. I can’t actually remember how it came up, but I suddenly decided to google search ‘bernard tomic bored’ to see the results, referring to this ill-fated 2017 match.
What I found was an insightful and elegantly-written article by Tim Boyle for the SMH, as mentioned at the start of this post (link at top). Boyle quickly states that aside from watching Venus Williams and Roger Federer, Wimbledon was ‘incredibly boring’ in 2017. He launches into a discussion about what it means today to be bored in society, and offers one of the most interesting commentaries I totally missed last year. He finds himself defending Tomic to a certain extent, which in itself is refreshing, but offers much more, making the article well worth a look even without the Tomic angle.
Boyle draws attention to the modern ‘aversion’ to boredom today, where it’s seen almost as a deficiency of character – if you’re bored, you must lack the personality and moral fibre to properly make use of your time. He quotes Australian musician Nick Cave who beautifully reinforces the point that boredom is not always a negative experience, and the propensity to be bored is not a negative trait.
I’ll let the article speak for itself from here. Go take a look.
TJDempsey 