【1998 Archives】

Everyone loves an underdog998 Archives but the fast-rising Tennys Sandgren is proving to be quite polarising.

The once-unknown Tennessean is the first American male tennis player since 2010 to make the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

But in the past 24 hours, questions have been raised about Sandgren's alleged alt-right sympathies and belief in the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. It culminated in the player completely purging his Twitter account of tweets.

While support for your countrymen often comes automatic in sports, Serena Williams fired away with a two-word tweet seemingly aimed at Sandgren on Wednesday, who was set to play South Korean starlet Chung Hyeon.

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Recently, a screenshot of Sandgren with an image of Williams captioned with the word "disgusting" was circulated online.

Many of these were cropped to not show the text, which links to an article about what Williams said in regard to Italian player Roberta Vinci.

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Of course, this doesn't clear Sandgren's alleged engagement with alt-right figures and beliefs.

He told reporters at a post-match conference on Monday that he finds some of the alt-right content he's engaged with on Twitter to be "interesting," but didn't believe in it.

In an interview with ESPN, Sandgren clarified these comments, explaining that "definitely not 'alt-right' content is interesting, just some individuals' specific content.'"

"I just follow information, not really specific 'alt-right' content that I deem of value, I think that's very incorrect, and I don't find information like that to be of value or to hold on to any of those things, so it's not who I am as a person in any way."

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Sandgren confirmed he deleted all his tweets, not because it was "something that I'm really necessary embarrassed about," but that "creating a version of a cleaner start is not a bad call." OK.

"People can screenshot, save and distribute everything they would like to. I know that, and that's fine. It is what it is," he explained. "It's just something that I thought wouldn't be a bad way to kind of move forward."

A devout Christian, Sandgren said he wants people to know that his character and how he acts should speak for itself. It's perhaps worth noting he comes from a state where 60 percent of votes were for Trump.

"I'm more than happy to talk with people and let people know how I feel about things. I've had to put the social media aside for now," he said. "I'll take a look at it and I'll take the criticism and I'll take the good with the bad and keep learning and growing as a person and try to move forward."

Sandgren lost in three straight sets to Hyeon on Wednesday afternoon. He issued a prepared statement at a post-match conference, squarely aimed at the media.

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UPDATE: Jan. 24, 2018, 5:25 p.m. AEDT Added statement from Sandgren.