This is in response to the July 15 op-ed headlined “Jannik Sinner also aced the compassion test.”

It told of how the number one tennis player in the world, Sinner, ran to the other side of the net to kneel by his opponent, Gregor Dimitrov, who was down and clearly in pain while Sinner was two sets behind him in a best-of-five competition at Wimbledon. And how Sinner walked arm-in-arm off the court with his competitor after Dimitrov forfeited the match to a serious muscle injury.

To quote the author, Derek Wittner of Kennebunkport, “Here, one human being openly displayed compassion and concern for another, albeit an opponent, in an almost biblical example of empathy.”

This was class, of the first order, in our damaged and negatively charged society, filled with so much enmity. As the author noted, this action stood in contrast, an example of “the better angels of our nature.”

Paul Baribault
Lewiston