The year is 2018. Politically, we are intertwined in one the most fierce, confrontational, and controversial eras of our modern history.

American athletes have been going around the world to compete on the biggest stages for over a century in their respective sports. Sports is becoming more globalized, just like everything else today, so while "American" sports like American Football remain hugely popular, the new generation of consumers in sports have grown to follow a wide variety of global sports, such as soccer and tennis, on an unprecedented level.

The Austrailian Open is currently going on. It is one of the four "grand slam" tournaments of the tennis calendar, so fans of the game turn their attention down under in huge numbers.

The cinderella story of this year's men's tournament is 26-year-old American Tennys Sandgren, as he has pulled off two mega-upsets so far, once over Stanislas Wawrinka, ranked 8th in the world, and also over 5th ranked Dominic Thiem. To put things in perspective, this year's Austrailian Open is just the third time that Sandgren, whose first name is spelled differently but pronounced the exact same as the name of the sport he plays, has even made the highly competitive, 128-man field of a grand slam.

One would think that the media would be in awe of his accomplishments. It is not common for a player ranked 97 in the world to advance to the final eight of a huge competition like the Aussie Open. But in today's political environment, full of strife and division, athletes are unfairly judged for their political views. Each time someone new enters prominence in a well-known sport, the media feels the need to dig deep into their social media portfolio. Sandgren found this out the hard way, right after he had just shocked #5 Dominic Thiem in five sets when he was asked abruptly if he supported the American alt-right movement.

It is true that Sandgren's twitter profile may paint him as a right-winger. He follows notable right-wing media people such as Ann Coulter and Alex Jones, while also controversially commenting on a debunked myth in which Hillary Clinton was involved in a sex trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza restaurant.

Sandgren has since removed much of his political content from his Twitter account, not out of embarrassment, but because "creating a version of a cleaner start is not a bad call," he told ESPN.

For the record, Sandgren describes himself as a conservative but has denied having any support of the alt-right movement, while also expressing the need to hear "all kinds of issues" in today's society: "We are definitely in an outrage culture where free speech doesn’t seem to be as free as it used to be,” he told the New York Times. “There are all kinds of restrictions people want to place on that.”

But the fact of the matter is that Tennys Sandgren is in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. That is a huge deal for himself and fans of American tennis. I am especially excited because for years he lived less than an hour from my house, so he's like the home team for me. For the media to bring politics into the picture immediately after he establishes a name for himself on the world stage is disappointing, but reflective of parts of today's news and sports media. For years, meshing sports and politics was a no-no, but today, it seems like it's an even bigger no-no to not blend the two. Come on people, just watch the tennis.