In honor of the Trophy Husband’s birthday, the theme for this weekend’s post is tennis “Dad Jokes.” This series was also inspired by Hseih Su-Wei, who astonished me by committing an egregious dad joke during a semifinals doubles match at the US Open last week. I don’t recall ever seeing it in professional tennis, though I am sure it occurs from time to time.
My definition of a tennis dad joke encompasses on-court actions or generally inoffensive utterances. However, they also usually produce a grimace or a groan rather than a laugh. Tennis dad jokes are funny because they are either sincerely or intentionally not funny.
In her US Open semi-final women’s doubles match last week, Hsieh was partnered with Xinyu Wang against Gabi Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe. At 2-2 in the first set, Hseih pretended to make a play on a ball that was clearly sailing across the baseline. This intentional whiff is a classic tennis dad joke. It gives the other team a momentary sense that the point might not be over, only to dash their hopes.
I was watching the match live and was so surprised to see an intentional whiff in a Grand Slam tournament that I immediately questioned if it really just happened. A subsequent review of the point revealed that it was deliberate.
If you don’t see an animation below, your email client or browser is blocking it.
Hseih swings over the ball rather than pulling the racquet back, which is what a player who almost hits an out ball and decides against it at the last moment typically does. Routliffe, who missed the volley, does not bite on the psych-out and was already turning presumably to apologize to her partner and discuss the next point.
I used to frequent a drill where a couple of other regulars would perpetrate the intentional whiff at every possible opportunity. That would almost always prompt the players in line on the other side of the net to sarcastically mutter, “That never gets old.” I would propose that this joke should only be committed no more than once per match or drill.
I can confidently attest that I have never executed the intentional whiff in any situation. That is a pragmatic decision because I would 100% accidentally hit the ball. This is the only tennis dad joke that I kind of consider a jerk move. In fact, jerk was not the first word that sprung to mind.
The remaining tennis dad jokes for this weekend are much more benign.
