MADVedev looked crazy at Australian Open, even as Nitish Reddy did something mind blowing uphill

Sport minus emotions is dull as ditchwater. On Tuesday, two different visuals caught the eye, contrasting emotions and yet compelling. The first was new rock star of Indian cricket, Nitish Reddy crawling on his knees, literally, for a pilgrimage up the hills of Tirupati. Everyone knows, Nitish made it big with one Test hundred and then showed he could bowl the medium pace as well, hit the deck type. After his maiden Test ton, he has become a pin-up boy, or to be more modern, a screensaver on many cell phones.

For someone who came up the hard way in Andhra with fulsome support from his father and family, Nitish has arrived.  Before this, he was already a big hit with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. He has been retained this season as well by Sunrisers. So, what is it that prompted Nitish to do something so punishing, that he crawled on his knees, up, many hundred of steps, or even thousands? He could easily have got a VIP darshan. No, Nitish wanted to be reverential to such an extent he wanted to express his gratitude. Devotion is ingrained, yet to thank God for something he has achieved for himself and Indian cricket, his ‘knew crawl’ has broken the internet. It’s fine to walk up, but crawl on knees, so painful. He is tough, very tough. He knows how he has made it big in cricket where his father actually lay prostate in front of Sunil Gavaskar when he scored a ton in the fourth Test. There was no need for it, but the senior Reddy was thanking one and all for ensuring his son has made it big.

Nitish Reddy will return to his home in Andhra energised. He does have a PR firm handling his social media accounts, but this act of his was just out of the world. It’s fine to see elite athletes pumping iron in the gym or doing something more punishing. Nitish has shown that he did not care about his knees. Kneeling is reverential in every faith. Yet, to crawl on knees and move uphill, this cannot be viewed as a PR stunt.

If Nitish caught the eye, so did maverick Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev. The heat in Melbourne was killing and the meltdown from Medvedev was nothing new as he negotiated tough times against Thailand’s wild card Kasidit Samerej. All those who have seen tantrums in tennis from John McEnroe’s expletive-laden outburst on court to Goran Ivanisevic’s glare will vouch they are characters still remembered by fans. McEnroe is now a celebrity commentator and Ivanisevic coaches Elena Rybakina, after having moved on from Novak Djokovic.

For those who have seen tantrums and fuse blown on the court, what Medvedev did on Tuesday was outrageous. Down two sets, he had to let out steam. At one stage, he smashed his tennis racquet into the net five times. Such was the impact, even the net camera, used for live visuals had been destroyed. Medvedev was oblivious to it. What he did was more than rage, it was ill-temper. For TV viewers, it was nice stuff but if you treat it as a role model for budding tennis players, this was just too much.

Later, Medvedev spoke on his madness at length. He had earned a code violation for holding up play. Debris had to be cleared from the court and much of the anger/violence he demonstrated went live! Later, Medvedev, finalist in 2024 joked: “I know that I play better when I play more tennis, so I was like, why play one hour 30 minutes, minimum three hours to feel my shots better,” he said. Well, Medvedev may have spoken like this since he won. Had he lost, it would have been expletives, perhaps.

Back to which visuals sports lovers enjoyed, Nitish Reddy seemed better than MADVedev.