The tennis commentariat is all atwitter about Nick Kyrgios getting worked up and busting some racquets after his quarterfinals loss to Karen Khachanov at the US Open. This makes little sense when everyone is so ready to indulge Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles and others when they call attention to their own mental health struggles.
Nick Kyrgios also has mental health challenges. The difference is that his are continually manifest for the world to see and in a very male way. I.e. they are mixed with a lot of testosterone. So he busts up some tennis rackets, so what? Whatever, slap him with a $10k fine. I am torn with whether his racquet sponsor Yonex should be the one paying the fines although, I must admit, I wasn't entirely aware that Yonex was still making racquets till I saw Kyrgios smashing them so perhaps Yonex should be encouraging and paying him to whale away at them with gusto whenever. Kyrgios faces assault charges from a former girlfriend and has a scheduled court date. For that he deserves whatever the law throws at him; for the rest of it, so long as he doesn't hurt anyone, it's probably good for the sport and people need to accept the fact that mental health challenges manifest themselves in different ways.
In general, it must be said that the social codes around professional tennis can be rather daunting. The whole stadium has to be quiet or the umpire will eject offenders. Players can be given warnings for cursing, etc. It's an extreme microcosm of bourgeois capitalism. It's hard on people with feisty natures and it adds to the mental nature of the game. In the end, though, I must confess that I very much relish certain aspects of it, especially the obligatory handshake/hug at the end of the match. I watch to see how earnest each side is at that moment, it's like a window into their soul.
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