Tennys Sandgren, the surprise package of the Australian Open, exited the tournament at the quarter-final stage overnight, losing in straight sets to another unseeded player - South Korean Chung Hyeon.
His run to the quarter-finals saw Sandgren rack up wins against world number five Dominic Thiem and world number eight San Wawrinka.
During the tournament, Sandgren has received as much attention for what he has done off the court as on it. The 26-year-old is an ardent Christian and appears to be a Donald Trump supporter with strong right-wing views. A native of Tennessee, Sandgren has been scrutinised by reporters for his political views.
Sandgren said during the week that he does not support the alt-right movement but 'finds some of the content interesting'.
Media scrutiny led to Sandgren scrubbing his Twitter account clean of some controversial and offensive tweets. Those included a December 2012 tweet: "stumbled into a gay club last night.. my eyes are still bleeding #nooneshouldseethat." He also expressed a view that “the collective evidence is too much to ignore” in regard to 'Pizzagate', a bonkers theory that Hillary Clinton helped to run a child sex ring out of a pizza shop in northern Virginia.
Over recent days, Sandgren used a program to delete all but one of his tweets. The one remaining is a retweet of a tennis blogger's article from 2013 which praised Sandgren.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEL8k85L-NM
Following last night's match, Sandgren launched an attack on the media.
You seek to put people in these little boxes so that you can order the world in your already assumed preconceived ideas.
You strip away any individuality for the sake of demonising by way of the collective.
With a handful of follows and some likes on Twitter, my fate has been sealed in your minds.
To write an edgy story, to create sensationalist coverage, there are a few lengths you wouldn’t go to mark me as the man you desperately want me to be.
You would rather perpetuate propaganda machines instead of researching information from a host of angles and perspectives while being willing to learn, change, and grow.
You dehumanise with pen and paper and turn neighbour against neighbour. In so doing, you may actually find you’re hastening the hell you wish to avoid, the hell we all wish to avoid.
It is my firm belief that the highest value must be placed on the virtue of each individual, regardless of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.
It’s my job to continue on this journey with the goal of becoming the best me I can and to embody the love Christ has for me, for I answer to Him and Him alone.
I’ll take questions about the match, if you guys don’t mind. Thank you. If you have any questions about the match.
Prior to last night's match, Serena Williams tweeted that she was switching the channel.
Turns channel
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) January 24, 2018
This was likely in reaction to a tweet of an article about Williams which Sandgren sent in 2015, captioned 'Disgusting...' Many took this a Sandgren calling the images of Williams disgusting. Though, this may not have been the case.
Lots of valid, fair scrutiny of Tennys Sandgren on here, but one damning common screengrab is incomplete and perhaps misleading. It was a link to an article about Serena screaming toward Vinci, not just photos of her.
Feel free to still disapprove, but get the whole picture. pic.twitter.com/7PI6grjmCi— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 24, 2018
