Tennis Confrontations: The Ugly Side of the Sport

Professional sport is no cakewalk. Tempers rise with the temperature and adrenaline starts flowing so it is no surprise that there are times when the players let the situation get the better of them and lose their temper. Most of the times it’s restricted to racquet breaking or shouting aimed at themselves or their box but sometimes it escalates into a fight against the opponent. Moving on to the top tennis confrontations then,

11. Kyrgios vs Johnson – 2017 Shanghai Open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMnBCRosm1w

Australian youngster Nick Kyrgios has earned a reputation for being a ‘bad boy’. Back in 2016, he was handed an 8-week ban for not trying hard enough. Fast-forward to 2017, and he was involved in a bizarre incident with Steve Johnson. Deep into the first set, he began to mouth off on how unfair things were. Then he began to threaten to quit the match. As soon as he lost the first set, to the amazement and confusion of everyone, he forfeit the match and Johnson advanced by default. Also, Kyrgios had one of his signature tennis confrontations, this time with the chair umpire.

10.  Nadal vs Fognini – 2015 Hamburg final

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4tPy8mxcCY&nohtml5=False

Fognini is one player who has the ability to get under the skin of his opponent. He was one of the few players who made Rafa lose his cool which is a rarity. Here’s a translation of the dialogue picked up from Youtube. Apparently it was about Rafa taking too much time between points

Fognini: what do you want?

Nadal: you’re always complaining about the time

Fognini: because you do the same thing all the time, don’t break my balls.

Nadal: good bye, good bye

9. Mardy Fish vs Paul Henri Mathieu

http://%20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpSt5W49O

In the 2nd set of the match, Paul Henry called for injury time out due to his back being stiff. But Mardy took offense to this claiming it was a deliberate tactic to slow the pace of the game down. He lost it right there at Paul Henry dropping several F bombs and saying – I’m gonna beat his f****g ass. Ironically, Paul Henri Mathieu won the match.

8. Mikhail Youzhny vs Mikhail Youzhny

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-CgSO9Evw

No, that is not an error, this actually happened. Youzhny’s opponent Nicolas Almagro witnessed one of the most unique tennis confrontations, with the self. The Russian got flustered for making an error at a crucial point that he decided to hit his racquet on his own head. Youzhny ended up bleeding from the head and immediately had to be treated for the same. Talk about self inflicted misery.

7. Paes/Bhupathi vs Monaco/Lopez, 2011 Australian Open

http://%20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edKYtI7FCRk

Hey! Good to see somebody from India here, or maybe not. The friction started when Juan Monaco hit a shot straight at Paes which led to Bhupathi acting as a peacemaker at the net but Paes steps in and it escalates into an argument leading to the chair umpire having to do some exercise by coming down and separating the teams.  Lopez and Monaco in the post match conference go on to say that Paes was constantly trying to provoke them and get under their skin.

6. Lleyton Hewitt vs Juan Ignacio Chela, 2005 Australian Open

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zu57QgdNys

In a tense fourth set, Chela became agitated when Hewitt celebrated an unforced error in trademark Hewitt style  that gave the No. 3 seed a break-point. On the next point Chela served the ball on the full directly at Hewitt. Tempers were flaring at the hottest slam of the year. The Argentine player then spat in Hewitt’s direction as the players crossed paths on their way to their court side seats at a change of ends. Chela later claimed that he was indeed spitting but it wasn’t aimed at Hewitt and the two had sorted their differences out. Chela was fined nonetheless.

5. Mario Ancic vs Paul Capdeville –

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbEzF3y6bUk

A classic example of a verbal fight turning into a shoving match between the players. The poor Chair Umpire had to rush down to stop them. The players were 6ft 5 and 6ft 3 respectively.

4. Connors vs McEnroe

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYYUtb4GUHE

Chicago 1982, everybody knew that McEnroe has a reputation of being a little too verbal on the court. But after being repeatedly insulted, Conors decided enough was enough and decided to hop over to the other side of the court to have a face off (quite literally). Officials were forced to intervene and separate the two before things got ugly. Surprisingly, McEnroe was the more composed of the two parties.

3 . Andre Agassi vs Pete Sampras

http://%20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QSK9t6OrgU&nohtml5=False

As a relatively younger Tennis fan – I have only heard about the Agassi-Sampras rivalry but from what I do know of the rivalry is that it was intense. Here’s some proof of it. During a charity game, tempers skyrocketed as Sampras copied Andre’s trademark pigeon walk and Agassi went on to remind the crowd of Pistol Pete’s reputation of a poor tipper- A claim Agassi made in his autobiography. Nadal and Federer could only smile uncomfortably as Sampras hit his next serve straight at Agassi.

2. Murray vs Del Potro –

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkhkYBO0KeU

This clash takes place back in 2008 during The Rome Masters when both Murray and Del Potro were relatively unknown commodities.  Murray took offense when Argentine aimed a ball at his head without apology. He complained about the same to the chair umpire but matters then got even more heated between the two former junior rivals when Del Potro claimed the Scot and his mother were “always the same”, forcing the umpire to act like a teacher in a school playground. Murray complained that such behavior was unacceptable while the poor chair umpire tried to pacify the two future stars.

1 . Stefan Koubek vs Daniel Kollerer

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIYdC4TX_G8

Now this is where it gets really ugly. Choking an opponent is taking it too far as Koubek learnt his lesson the hard way. Infuriated by something Kollerer said, Koubek got out of his chair and tried to strangulate his opponent resulting in an instant disqualification.