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Let's move on from this racket rumpus

The only real damage done was to Marcos Baghdatis' racket © Getty Images

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A whole lot of fuss has been made of the racket-breaking antics of Marcos Baghdatis and David Nalbandian during their defeats on Wednesday. Too much fuss if truth be told.

The press-room scribes had clearly set their stall out to probe virtually every player on the subject. Sharapova, Serena, Novak, Murray, the list could go on and on, were all asked for their views on what went on. And the reaction, by and large, was a shrug of the shoulders. Absolutely right.

Andy Murray summed it up perfectly when asked for his views, claiming the Baghdatis incident was tame compared with what the likes of John McEnroe and his pals from the 1970s and 1980s got up to.

"I saw that yesterday with Baghdatis," Murray said. "Everybody's different. You just have to let guys kind of do what is natural to them. Someone like McEnroe, I saw some clips of him yesterday, I think he was playing Anders Jarryd maybe, I think the match was in Sweden, he's smashing bottles into the stand and stuff.

"Then people say Baghdatis smashed a couple of rackets and it's a huge thing. Before, the guys were way worse behaved and said way, way worse things to the umpires. I think it's pretty mild compared with what happened. Also he ended up winning that set as well. So sometimes it can help."

Murray is exactly right in that it was a couple of players smashing a couple of rackets. It's a high-pressure environment and players seek a release in different ways. There is a line that is drawn, policed by the umpires, and provided it is not crossed then there is no real problem.

The issue today, as Murray pointed out, is that the media are quick to jump on such incidents as it provides snappy copy, coupled with a sharp image of a splintered racket in the hands of an exasperated player.

Baghdatis made the back pages in the UK alongside his shattered racket. His appearance, and that of Nalbandian in other papers, was treated with a shade of humour - their outbursts being put down to 'Latin temperament' and 'Mediterranean fire'.

Thankfully it was not Murray who had gone on the 'rampage' as it would almost certainly have been accompanied with 'surly Scot' headlines.

Murray is clearly aware of the coverage he gets every time he puts even half a foot out of place. "If I swear on the court, I get asked about a hundred questions about it," he said. "I've taken my fair share of stick for saying stuff on the court that was very, very mild compared with what the guys used to before."

Murray's take on the situation is correct. It is a couple of guys smashing a racket, it's happened before and will happen again. Let's put the issue to bed and focus on the tennis.

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