Posted on 01/23/2026 12:30:31 PM PST by nickcarraway
We’re in the middle of the Australian Open right now, one of the 4 major tennis tournaments collectively known as the “grand slams,” and it didn’t take long for a press conference to turn into a circus down in Melbourne.
Several American tennis stars are being praised for how they handled a series of “baited” questions from a reporter seemingly intent on eliciting a condemnation of Donald Trump and the United States. Remember this is a tennis tournament, a pretty big one, and rather than using your press credentials to ask tennis players ab0ut… oh, I don’t know… tennis? We’re talking politics across the globe? Earlier this week, American tennis star Coco Gauff expressed her “fatigue” over talking about it, but that didn’t stop some hack named Owen Lewis from questioning American tennis players about the Trump Administration this morning.
He asked Amanda Anisimova “how it feels to play under the American flag right now… I’m curious how you feel?” And she, perhaps unsurprisingly to any normal person, said she was proud to represent her country:
“Yeah, I mean, I was born in America, so I’m always proud to represent my country. And yeah, a lot of us are doing really well, and it’s great to see a lot of, you know, great athletes on the women’s side, on the men’s side. So, yeah, I feel like we’re all um doing a great job representing ourselves.”
But of course, that wasn’t a satisfactory answer so he doubled down and asked if the past year of the Trump administration has “complicated” that feeling. To his dismay, the daughter of Russian immigrants called it irrelevant:
“I don’t think that’s relevant.”
Next was men’s star Taylor Fritz, who couldn’t help buy demonstrate his utter annoyance by having to field ridiculous questions like this. When asked about how “a lot is going on back home in the US,” he refused to play the game and shut down the line of questioning:
“I mean, not sure what we’re specifically talking about, but there is a lot going on in the U.S… and I don’t know. I feel like whatever I say here is going to get put in a headline, and it’s going to get taken out of context. So, I’d really rather not do something that’s going to cause a big distraction for me in the middle of the tournament.”
Just utterly exhausted by the media… I love the reaction.
Owens then asked Madison Keys about the “ridiculously high tensions” in the United States right now, and how she “personally feels about the Trump Administration,” and while it was clear that she isn’t a fan of Donald Trump, I think she still gave a rather diplomatic and answer about wanting to see more unity in the country. Who doesn’t? When asked about Trump in the past, Keys always seems to default back towards a position of desiring kindness… I’ve never heard her be outwardly critical of the President, but she said:
“I think it’s pretty obvious where I stand, and I am hopeful that we as a country can come together and get back to the values that I think make our country great. I am not a fan of divisiveness, and I think the beauty of the U.S. is we are a mixing pot. We are very diverse. We are a home of immigrants. And I hope that we can get back to those values.”
Naturally the liberal media will run with a “Madison Keys Slams Donald Trump” kind of headline but it sounds like she said she wants to make America great again, right? “Get back to the values that make our country great” sounds a lot like the Donald Trump slogan, doesn’t it? Ok, I’m joking but still, I don’t have a problem with the answer for the most part… whether you like the DOnald or not, calling for kindness and unity isn’t controversial in my eyes.
And finally, Jessica Pegula was asked about the amount of “suffering,” yes… suffering… under the Trump Administration and how she was feeling about it, particularly in her home state of Florida. In another pretty diplomatic response, she essentially shut down even speaking about it and said that Florida was pretty great:
“I don’t know. I don’t like to kind of dabble too much into politics, just because it’s just not the space that I really want to say that much on. But yeah, I just hope that everybody can kind of, at some point, come together and work together as far as situations or whether it’s political or not political in our country… I just hope you know that we can come together at some point with like a good dialogue where things can actually get accomplished and things that we want to see accomplished, and it not be so divisive, I guess.
Personally, Florida’s been, I think, okay. I think Florida there’s a big melting pot of different people from all over, in Florida. So, I feel like, especially me being in South Florida near Miami, I mean, there’s people of all over the country that come to move to Florida, and there’s a lot of international people that are there. So, I don’t know if that’s maybe why you kind of get a lot of different cultural differences in a good way, honestly. So, Florida to me, at least where I live, has been fine.”
Bravo team America… I mean, I would’ve loved to see Taylor Fritz go off on this clown for infecting sports with his own political agenda, but one can understand why it’s easier to just not participate in the question. Nevertheless, it begs the question… what are these politically-driven bozos even doing in the room? These so-called “journalists,” who aren’t even American (he is reportedly Canadian but unable to verify), flying across the world with their bag of “gotcha” questions in the hopes that they can get a tasty headline about Trump? What a sad existence…
It reminds me a lot of what Pat McAfee said the other day in response to the controversial Jacksonville Jaguars press conference. You have these political activists who can’t make it in real journalism so they sneak into sports as an easier alternative to try and publish their political agenda.
In response to backlash towards Lynn Jones, Pat said:
“Love seeing these sports ‘journalists’ getting ABSOLUTELY BURIED for being curmudgeon bums. OBVIOUSLY NOT ALL OF THEM but a LARGE percentage of these things hate sports. They hate what sports are for people (happiness). They hate what sports are for society (unifier). They’re political journalists by nature who’ve preyed on sports because they saw it as an easier path to ‘make it.’ Sports are the greatest thing on Earth, these ***********s have no idea… and will never get it. “
Amen.
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And then just stare at him.
“””Okay, but I wish just ONE of them would have said, unblinkingly, “Why are you asking political questions at an athletic event?” “””
Or ask him why he has TDS.
Every country has those who happily live in the six-sigma to the left IQ world. Sad for us that a measurable percentage of those unfortunates choose journalism as their profession.
I would have told that reporter to take a hike, but would not be that nice about it.
HE NEEDS HIS PRESS CREDENTIALS YANKED-—FOREVER
EXactly
I wish she had said we are a home of legal immigrants and we need to make sure the people following the rules are not cheated.
Yes, Amanda Anisimova is a U.S. citizen. Born in Freehold Township, New Jersey, on August 31, 2001, she is an American professional tennis player who represents the United States, despite being of Russian descent. Anisimova has explicitly stated she is “always proud to represent” the U.S.
Birthplace: New Jersey, U.S.
Nationality: American
Background: Her parents, Olga and Konstantin Anisimov, emigrated from Russia to the U.S. in 1998.
Context: She has affirmed her pride in representing the U.S. and stated she has no plans to switch her nationality.
She continues to compete for the United States on the WTA Tour.
Well done.🇺🇸
I would like to see the video, but I’m not downloading the app.
This jerk-wad needs to get his press credential pulled.
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