Tennis Player Made Gun Gesture With His Racket

Mike Bryan is fined $10K after ill-advised gesture toward line ref
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 2, 2019 8:07 AM CDT
Tennis Player Made Gun Gesture With His Racket
Mike Bryan, left, returns a shot to Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the men's doubles final of the US Open, Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, in New York.   (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Mike Bryan may have won the point, but it proved an expensive one: At the US Open on Sunday, the American doubles player appealed a call made by a line ref, won the reversal, then turned his racket around to mimic a gun he pretended to fire at said ref. The gesture cost him an initial code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct, and an eventual $10,000 fine, reports CNN. "We won the point and the gesture was meant to be playful," Bryan said in a statement, while acknowledging that "given the recent news and political climate I understand how my gesture could be viewed as insensitive. I promise that I will never do anything like this again." Bryan and his brother, Bob, won their second-round match on Sunday. (More Mike Bryan stories.)

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