From Marcos Baghdatis to John McEnroe: tennisnet. com presents the most bizarre moments when the tennis stars lost their mastery.
By Christian Albrecht Barschel
Marcos Baghdatis is considered to be a cheerful and pleasant type on and beside the tennis court. In his second round match at the Australian Open against Stanislas Wawrinka the Cypriot was “not amused”. Baghdatis had just won an early break in the third set. When changing sides, he left all his frustration out of his play equipment. Within 25 seconds Baghdatis destroyed four rackets at once – two of them were still in the protective cover. The outburst of rage only helped in the short term. Baghdatis still won the set, but lost the match and became a hit on the internet. Subsequently, he was fined 800 US dollars. Roger Federer felt sorry for the stringers in particular,”I felt a little sorry for them because they had covered the four bats in vain.”
The third round match in Miami in 2008 between Mikhail Youzhny and Nicolas Almagro was extremely close. Almagro beat 5:4 in the third set to win the match. But he had to fend off a breakball from Youzhny. After Youzhny missed the break point, he went crazy. Three times the Russian hit his head with a stick. The result was a bleeding wound which Youzhny wanted to clean up with a towel. But the bleeding was so severe that a doctor had to put on his hand. Almagro looked at the laceration, both had to laugh. But the last laugh was on Youzhny’s side, who scored seven points in a row after the injury break and actually won the match. Asked if he’d done it before, Youzhny said,”No, that was the first time. It helped me. Maybe that’s why I should have done it sooner. Youzhny also missed the Hollywood movie title for his freak-out:”There Will Be Blood”.
Another freakout in Miami. Xavier Malisse led against David Ferrer 6-3,5-5 in 2005 and was on the verge of entering the third round. But instead of a possible victory, the Belgian was disqualified. Malisse did not agree with a judge’s decision and is said to have thrown the ball after her and insulted her. The line judge reported Malisse’s behaviour to the referee. Then the Belgian, who was known for his spirited temperament, went crazy, stepped on the chair and the gang and smashed his bat,”How can you do this to me? I’m so pissed off because I didn’t say anything at all,”Malisse shouted out his anger. The Belgian was finally disqualified and later locked up for four weeks because of “bad behaviour”. Malisse also had to give back his prize money of 13,290 US dollars and pay a fine of 7,705 US dollars. Some spectators were rather on Malisse’s side during this incident:”You’re shit, referee. Disappear from the pitch”, some of the tirades were called the referee.
As a rule, Wimbledon is quite noble. Players are holding back with outbursts of rage and fury. Not so Jeff Tarango, who was the talk of the 1995 Wimbledon tournament. The American disqualified himself in the third round against German Alexander Mronz by leaving the pitch furiously – a novelty in the history of Grand Slam. What had happened? Tarango beat an ace at 6-7, -1-2. However, referee Bruno Rebeuh had the rally repeated due to an out-call of the line judge. The angry protests of the American did not help. When it was time to move on, Tarango called out after complaints from the audience about a delay in playing “shut up” to the spectators. Rebeuh warned Tarango, who lost his composure completely.
The US-American asked for the Chief Arbitrator to release his complaint. When the latter did not reverse the decision and rejected Tarango’s request for an exchange of the referee, Tarango Rebeuh was accused of being “the most corrupt officials in the game”. Tarango received the second warning and a point loss, which was also the game win for Mronz. It was all too much for the US-American, who grabbed his bag, left the pitch furiously and thus disqualified himself. The story continued, however, when Tarango’s wife, Benedicte Rebeuh, slapped her face in the catacombs on the way to the catacombs “The guy deserves a lesson. He can do anything he wants because he’s in the chair. Players don’t stand a chance of defending themselves,”Benedicte Tarango justifies her slaps at the press conference. Tarango also repeated his accusations of bribery against Rebuh. The American was sentenced by the ITF to a fine of 63,000 US dollars and a two-year suspension from Grand Slam tournaments. Shortly afterwards, the ITF reduced the fine to $20,000 and Tarango was only excluded for the 1996 Wimbledon tournament. The US-American learned from this incident and remained without any major outbursts until the end of his career in 2003.
Goran Ivanisevic was the lord of the aces and beat his opponents with a record number of 10,183 aces. But when things didn’t go well for the Croatian, his play equipment often suffered from it. In 2000 there was such a situation at Ivanisevic. The Croatian was only number 134 in the world ranking. In his last sixteen in Brighton, England, against South Korea’s Hyung-Taik Lee, he was in such a state of fury that he destroyed all his rackets and was suddenly left without any useful equipment. Ivanisevic had only packed three clubs into his pocket and destroyed his last one when he made two double mistakes in the third set. The Croatian then took a point deduction and the break to 1:3. He had to explain to the confused referee that he had run out of clubs and could no longer play.
Since Ivanisevic did not want to play with the racket of his double partner Ivan Ljubicic because he could not cope with the racket brand, he had no choice but to give up. Ivanisevic cannot continue to play because he lacks adequate material,”the referee told the amazed spectators. An absolute novelty in the history of tennis:”I didn’t really want to play here. That was a stupid decision. I knew something was gonna happen. I thought I only needed three rackets for the tournament because I wouldn’t have won it anyway,”Ivanisevic explained,”When I finish my tennis career, people at least remember something. They’ll say:’ There’s the guy who never won Wimbledon but destroyed all his clubs’,”oracled Ivanisevic. He should be wrong. Half a year later, the Croatian had enough clubs in his pocket and sensationally won as a wildcard player in Wimbledon. An achievement that is associated with the name Goran Ivanisevic even more than his legendary outburst of rage.
39 years old and not a bit quiet. This is how Jimmy Connors presented himself at the 1991 US Open. On his 39th birthday. On his 80th birthday in the last 16 against Aaron Krickstein, the American showed that he is still on the tennis court. After a controversial decision to his disadvantage, Connors attacked the referee:”I am 39 years old and I’m tearing my butt open here and you do this. Get out of the chair!”, Connors insulted and called the referee a son of a bitch, an ass and later in another fight also a freak. He monkeyed the referee and threatened to throw him off the field. For Connors, however, the birthday came to an end. He won in five sets and later reached the semi-finals of the US Open.
It is one of the most legendary quotes in sports history. What” I have a dream”,”I am a Berliner” or “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” for politicians is John McEnroe’s “You cannot be serious” for the tennis world. The US player’s frenzy in the first-round match against fellow countryman Tom Gullikson at the 1981 Wimbledon tournament has reached cult status, and “You cannot be serious” is also known to tennis fans. Big Mac “was allowed to replay this scene in a commercial for a car manufacturer. This outburst of rage had also paid off for McEnroe back then and gave him a boost. Less than two weeks later he won his first Wimbledon. The 1990 Australian Open was different. There, McEnroe was disqualified in the round of 16 against Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors after thugs and insults against the officials.