The well-known CR7 cheer spills over to the fans at the Australian Open. Not all tennis stars are enthusiastic about it.
The long “Siuu” has long been the trademark jubilation of Manchester United’s star striker Cristiano Ronaldo. With his wide-legged leap and his reputation, the Portuguese regularly celebrates his goals and the corresponding chants echo through Old Trafford.
But the “Siuu” can not only be heard in the theater of dreams these days, tennis fans are also roaring it at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year – and that after almost every point.
For example, in the match of co-favorite Andy Murray in the first round against Nikoloz Basilashvili (Georgia). The Scot was somewhat surprised after the game. “Only yesterday during training I thought people were booing me and I had no idea why,” he said. “At some point I realized: ‘No, that’s this Siuu or whatever it’s called that Ronaldo always does when he scores.’ It’s incredibly irritating.”
Nick Kyrgios celebrates like Ronaldo
Local hero Nick Kyrgios said something similar after his win against Liam Broady (England) in the Rod Laver Arena: “It’s a stupid reputation. I can’t believe the fans have done it so often. (…) Me thought it might be over 10 minutes, but they did it for two and a half hours, practically after every point. I don’t know why. But it was a circus out there.”
It was obviously contagious after all, because after his converted match point, Kyrgios jumped around the pitch in the best CR7 manner:
A few days later, Kyrgios was eliminated by number two seeded Daniil Medvedev. There was also noise from the audience in this duel, which Medvedev condemned in the strongest possible terms: “Break point, I have the second serve and people are screaming as if you had already made a double fault. This is disappointing behavior. Of course, it’s not all the fans , but those who do are probably low IQ.”
There is no explanation as to why fans Down Under have copied Ronaldo’s celebrations. Rather, Ronaldo, as a style icon and role model, seems to have unconsciously initiated the jubilant crossover to other sports.
He himself got used to the jubilation in Real Madrid times. He played there successfully between 2009 and 2018. The long “Siuu”, which simply means “Jaa”, has no deeper meaning than the Portuguese once did to the TV station Four explained: “Everyone knows that if I score a goal or we win, I just do it. That’s our reputation, it belongs to Real Madrid.”
Cristiano Ronaldo Jubel: Premiere gegen Chelsea
Incidentally, Ronaldo celebrated in this way for the first time in 2013, back then in a test match. “It was when we played Chelsea in the USA and I really don’t know how that happened,” he admitted soccer.com: “I scored and it just came out. It was totally natural to be honest.”
Ronaldo continued: “After that, I realized that I enjoyed it and started doing it more often. I saw that the fans liked it and remembered it, so I kept doing it.”
