Flushing, NY: The professional tennis world’s U.S. Open began yesterday amidst controversy over everyone’s favorite life-status updater, Twitter.
In an effort to squash any possibility of “insider information” about players being leaked to the outside world during matches, officials for the U.S. Open banned the use of Twitter during match play in particular, and asked for over-all good judgement when players were Tweeting elsewhere.
“We felt that the use of Twitter during match play would slow down the game, especially if a player like Andy Murray decided to Tweet every single game, or for that matter, every point,” explained representative Richard Spears.
There was also a fear that insider information such as injury status, court conditions, and fatigue could play a part in sports betting, since people will bet on almost any sport except for dominoes. (correction: bookies in Vegas have taken bets for domino tournaments, as well as bets on how others will bet on domino tournaments.)
One of the most vocal of players against the ban was tennis star Andy Roddick, stating, “I think its lame the U.S. Open is trying to regulate our tweeting,” directly on Twitter.
Sources say that when asked why he doesn’t have a Twitter account, Roger Federer explained that he is “too busy playing tennis and being married” to be bothered with the social networking site.
When asked about Federer’s answer, Andy Roddick held up his tennis racquet and a picture of supermodel wife Brooklyn Decker, and shrugged.