04/18/24
June 27, 2003
The fan who yelled "out" during the Rusedski-Roddick match at Wimbledon this week, leading Rusedski to lose the point, his composure, and the match, has outed himself. Zilioni Ivaldes, who was described as "a wanker" in Rusedski's on-court tirade, says he was trying to help the transplanted Brit defeat Roddick and has offered to pay his fine.
There's a picture of the "wanker" here (and no I don't mean Rusedski). Anyone in south-west London sees him, give him a cuffing for me. Typical Man Utd fan - born miles from Old Trafford, lives in London and no idea to behave like a sports fan.
posted by squealy at 11:18 AM on June 27, 2003
Wow, the guy is incredibly contrite. Rusedski would do well to accept his apology and move on.
posted by vito90 at 11:36 AM on June 27, 2003
This guy acted like a wanker, but Rusedski should've shrugged it off. I watched the match -- Rusedski's serve was killing Roddick at the time, and he was winning the third set convincingly. All he had to do was hold serve twice more to win the set and close Roddick's set lead to 2-1. Since Roddick won the first two sets in close tiebreakers, Rusedski would've been in great shape to beat Roddick at Wimbledon for the second straight year. Even if you excuse the entertaining tirade, which ESPN broadcast right up to the point he said "absolute shit," Rusedski lost my sympathy when he walked off without shaking the umpire's hand. Television coverage didn't show that -- it would've been interesting to see if the British crowd, which was heavily in his favor, reacted to that.
posted by rcade at 12:01 PM on June 27, 2003
He'll be lucky if Rusedski doesn't go round to his house and beat the shit out of him. He deserves it. Not for yelling "out". For being a Man Utd fan. ;-)
posted by salmacis at 12:43 PM on June 27, 2003
WOW! That's mighty cool. And he's not even under contract or nuttin.