Will Smith Effect Imitated At ITF Tennis Match in Ghana

Will Smith Effect Imitated At ITF Tennis Match in Ghana
By Mihar Dias
(C) Copyright April 2023

A slap that was heard around the world had crept into a real-life tennis competition in Ghana.

We are talking about a possible effect of a famous slap delivered by Will Smith that landed upon the face of a surprised Chris Rock on stage at the recent Academy Awards in Holywood that might have a bearing on what happened on a tennis court in faraway Ghana.

But show business and movie stars do have a tendency to influence the young, although in this case, we cannot say for sure that the incident was actually prompted by what happened on stage in Holywood. Or it was indeed a ‘Will Smith effect’ imitated by the young in a real-life event on a tennis court.

Coincidentally, Will Smith did play the award-winning role of Richard Wiliams, the temperamental father of two world tennis stars, Serena Williams and Venus Williams in a movie entitled “King Richard”.

It was widely reported by news media that a young Frenchman Michael Kouame (15), the top seed at the event, was caught slapping an older local opponent Raphael Nii Ankrah, (16) “with full force in the jaw with an open hand” after losing out to the latter during the first round in an ITF junior tournament held at Accra Sports Stadium in Ghana.

A video that went viral showed Kouame during a traditional handshake, over the net, at the end of the match, could not hold back his anger and frustrations over his defeat. After shaking hands with his opponent, Kouame hit the latter hard in the jaw.

If you had the chance to watch the video you would be to see clearly the Frenchman using his right to shake the hand of his opponent and unexpectedly slapping his Ghanian opponent with his left.

News reports say the incident which surprised everyone in the audience, led to a brawl among the spectators at the event but was later peacefully resolved.

Michael Kouame had since been disqualified from the ongoing International ITF Junior tournament in Ghana while the actor from whom he could have imitated the act, Will Smith regretfully resigned from The Film Academy before he was dismissed.

However, Kuoame at 15 still has a promising career ahead of him if he was willing to change his ways but for Will Smith who had shocked the world with his uncontrollable temper, his career is going into a downward spiral.

Life imitating art?

Mihar Dias is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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