A Fan At The Cincinnati Open Imitated a Bee And Kept Buzzing In Stefanos Tsitsipas' Ear Forcing Him To Stop Play And Complain To The Umpire

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Silence is a part of tennis that tends to dissuade people from becoming fans. From the tossing of a serve until the end of a point you need to stay completely quiet or you face the wrath of the crowd for being disrespectful. It's the one part of the sport I don't really care for and would welcome change in. Now obviously shouting "out" mid-point can't happen, but we have to get to a point where people can get excited during a great rally and not get shunned for it. 

Well, yesterday at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati we had something I'd never seen before —a fan imitating a bee. 

Seeing Stefanos Tsitstipas actually attempting to swat this make-believe bee multiple times was incredible. This fan had him in a mental torture chamber. I'm not even mad, I'm impressed. The fact that he actually went up to the head chair umpire to complain a fan was buzzing was tremendous. 

It's hard to tell how authentic the buzz sound was, but once you know it's a fan you gotta be able to block that out and carry on. It'd be great if this was all fair game to be honest. Tsitsipas is on American soil trying to take out the youngest Ben Shelton, the crowd should be able to fuck with him within reason. That'd be way more fun and put more eyeballs on the sport rather than their buttoned up tendencies. They don't even let you return to your seat mid-game! That actually needs to change ASAP. 

Also this fan ratting out the culprit was hilarious. Maybe he had a wager on Stefanos, or he was simply tired of this nutjob buzzing during play? Either he had no hesitation for wanting her gone. 

Aaron Doster. Getty Images.

If I were to profile a person who would buzz in a pro athlete's ear during a tennis match I'm picturing a teenager without question. Maybe low 20s? If you gave me 100 guesses of people in the crowd I'm not picking this older woman. 

She initially tried to play it off like she's had no clue what he was referring to when in reality she'd been buzzing up a storm for the past few minutes. What a scene. There's something about an older woman apologizing for pretending to be a bee that makes me giggle. "Oh sorry I lost my mind there and imitated a bee to fuck with you. Turns out I can't do that. My mistake, I'll be better and just not be a bee moving forward."