“I wouldn’t say that to my worst enemy!” one outraged player notably responded after a memorable on-court exchange last year. That competitor isn’t alone in experiencing behaviour you wouldn’t wish on your biggest adversary. Proving tension in tennis isn’t always of the competitive (or stringing) kind, here are some other on-court incidents we’ve played and replayed …
“He’s talking about my mum!”
Back in 2008 Andy Murray was outraged when Juan Martin del Potro not only fired a ball in his direction (um, it’s tennis, Andy) but also suggested he might want to get his mum involved in the argument. Nope, wouldn’t do this to our worst enemy.
If you can’t beat ‘em, imitate ‘em
Back in 1995, Natasha Zvereva had her own take on how to manage some Mary Pierce theatrics at the Australian Open. It was funny and feisty yet ultimately ineffective, the Russian going down laughing to the eventual champ.
Making it memorable
An explosive second round match between Naomi Broady’s and Jelena Ostapenko in 2016 ended with the pair being separated by the umpire when their mid-match spat dragged on. After this, we can’t wait to see their next encounter.
You’re choking
Choking in tennis generally means letting a match get away from you. Stefan Koubek took it more literally when he grabbed countryman Daniel Koellerer by the throat at a Challenger event in 2010. Koubek was unsurprisingly disqualified but we don’t think he wanted to play anymore anyway.
And finally, why would anyone do this to Rafa?
Such a lack of respect! When Lukas Rosol was trailing Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon 2014 he tried to get in Rafa’s head by knocking over his ‘just so’ water bottle – an act so unthinkable we know of only one other instance, when Marinko Matosevic jokingly did so in Monte Carlo the year before.
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