The
Bad Boys of Tennis Exposed…
The recent fiasco in the women’s final of the US Open in which
a string of umpire calls resulted in a meltdown by Serena Williams far
overshadowed a dominant performance by rising star Naomi Osaka in crushing
Williams. It was a sad commentary for
professional sports.
It led to a disgusting display of bad sportsmanship in which
Serena whipped the pro-Williams fans into such a frenzy that a cacophony “boos”
greeted the young Japanese girl in the awards ceremony.
The overwhelming disgust of the crowd totally ignored the
exceptional display of skill, dominance and maturity by Osaka, and destroyed
her historic moment winning her first major championship, leaving the new champion
on the winner’s podium in tears.
Throughout the championship match the poor sportsmanship
displayed by Williams seemed more like a deliberate strategy to distract, delay
and disrupt the poise of the young challenger.
Serena’s threats to the umpire and tourney officials for most
of the match and constant delays while arguing and disrupting the flow of the
game would have upset any normal challenger but Naomi was no pretender to the throne,
she owned it on this day.
She methodically waited out the tantrums of Serena and crushed
her where it counted, on the scoreboard.
Were it not for the collective unconsciousness of the overwhelmingly
pro-Serena gallery when they had a meltdown and unleashed a thunderous scream
of boos for the benefit of a worldwide television audience, it might have been
just another bad moment in tennis history.
To be fair and to her credit, when the award ceremony began
and was drowned out by the boos, Serena finally regained her composure enough
to tell her fans to stop booing and let Osaka have her historic moment, but the
damage had already been done. It might have
been a defining moment were it not for the fact Serena had fueled the flames and
caused the disruptions in the first place.
So what about her mad rants about prejudice, anti-feminism,
prejudice, bias or whatever? Well the
news media was quick to jump on her bandwagon and agree with her that the same
thing never happened in men’s tennis when they did the same things.
In a word, nonsense!
Media credibility, which has fallen to the lowest levels in
modern history, is a result of history, or lack of it in the first place. Every day it seems the left-leaning news media
rewrite history by ignoring it, and the effect it has on the present. Very little of what happens today is new, or
original.
Take Serena’s charge that men are not treated like women when
it comes to fines and point penalties like she got. Rather than me tell you what to think, you
decide. In this article I added a number
of old stories from the news media, about the bad behavior of men and the fines
and points deducted in their matches.
Long before her 2018 meltdown Serena had one in 2009 so this
was not her first display of arrogance on the court. Long before she turned professional the Bad
Boys of Tennis perfected the strategy of disruption, disgust and delay in
tennis matches.
The men were never punished for bad behavior in tennis? Get real!
The fines, point deductions and even disqualifications against the men
dominated the sport for decades. The
incredible intensity of the competition, the millions of dollars in prizes and
endorsements hanging in the balance, and the natural showmanship of the gladiators
made it inherent in the sport.
It never happened to men?
Jimmy
Connors, ilie Nastase and John McEnroe
the Bad
Boys of Tennis!
The boys who changed the sport of tennis forever as previous
tennis idol Rod Laver noted. They not
only perfected the art of War in tennis, they were consistently fined,
penalized points, lost games and even defaulted matches.
Rather than condemn the media for being ignorant of history
and facts, let them choke on their own words which demonstrate why no one
believes them anymore. Here is what an honest
media had to say back in the past about those Bad Boys of Tennis.
CONNORS
MOVES ON, LENDL HANGS ON
September 5, 1989
NEW YORK, SEPT. 4 --
This U.S. Open is not for children. So long as 37-year-old Jimmy Connors is
here it is violent and profane, but thrilling too, for Connors became an upset
quarterfinalist tonight with a stream of obscenities and a straight-set defeat
of third-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden. Connors was wracked by soreness and
tension and temper. He screamed, he swore, he flailed, and he was assessed a
game penalty and fines of $2,250 for his misconduct, which included numerous
epithets hurled at chair umpire Richard Ings. But twice Connors came from 0-2
deficits to completely overwhelm 23-year-old Edberg, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 at the
National Tennis Center. Afterward the five-time champion, the oldest player in
the draw and seeded just 13th, was unrepentant. "I've never really
apologized for anything I've ever done," he said. Connors's easy victory
was just one of the unexpected occurrences in the round of 16.
Earlier,
top-ranked Ivan Lendl was extended to five sets by 16th-seeded Andrei Chesnokov
of the Soviet Union but rallied for a 6-3, 4-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory. Seventh-seeded Michael Chang, the 17-year-old French Open champion, was upset
by No. 9 Tim Mayotte, 7-5, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.
Connors perhaps could be forgiven for
some of his transgressions. He had suffered agonizing spasms throughout his
lower body following his third-round victory over Andres Gomez and had to be
treated for more than two hours. He had endured a year of self-doubt and
frustration, failing to move beyond the second round in a Grand Slam event. In
Edberg he faced a limber, spring-legged serve-and-volleyer who was a finalist
at this year's French Open and Wimbledon. Edberg had beaten him in their last
two encounters, but was lackluster tonight. "I think two things
happened," Connors said. "I was playing one of those dream matches
where everything goes right. He was playing one of those matches like you're
just never in it." "I was on a tight string," he said of the
controversy. "Something was said, and something was said again, and
instead of me letting up and forgetting about it I continued on, and I
shouldn't have done that," because it cost a game.
Connors rode a
dangerous crest of emotion all night. He recovered from a two-game deficit in
the first set to sweep the next six games, breaking Edberg's serve on set point
by launching his body into a forehand winner down the line, to a deafening roar.
But when Edberg opened the second set by breaking Connors's serve, he screamed
in rage. "Warning, audible obscenity," Ings said. Connors started for
his chair at the changeover, and swatted a ball in the direction of the umpire.
He continued jawing at Ings. "Code violation, audible obscenity,"
Ings said calmly, and awarded a point to Edberg. Connors rose to take the
court, continuing to berate the umpire and gesturing at him. Ings then
penalized Connors the game for unsportsmanlike conduct. That put Connors at a
0-2 deficit again. Ings, it should be noted, is a veteran and highly regarded
chair umpire noted for his strict control of matches.
His conduct was correct
according to Men's Tennis Council rules. Connors was one more bit of misconduct
from defaulting the match entirely, under Grand Prix rules. Furious, he stormed
back to his chair and refused to play, calling for Ken Farrar, the supervisor
of referees, and Gayle Bradshaw, the tournament referee. Ferrar came out and
directed Connors to resume play. "I don't have to take this
{expletive}," Connors said. Ferrar told him to play. "Play? Why
should I play?" Connors said. Farrar again directed Connors to take the
court, and motioned to Ings to resume the match. Connors finally retook the
court. And swept the next three games, hurling himself across the court while
Edberg assisted him with wildly errant shots. A typical sequence came in the
eighth game, as Edberg served with Connors leading, 4-3. Connors went ahead,
0-40, when he raced to retrieve an Edberg overhead, threw up a spinning lob,
and then tore into Edberg's second overhead with a searing forehand pass for a
winner. On triple break point, Edberg tried a twisting drop volley. Connors
reached it for another forehand pass down the line to pandemonium, for a 5-3
lead, and held for the set. He broke Edberg again in the first game of the
third set, and took a 4-1 lead when Edberg yielded another service game on two
sloppy, deep backhand volleys. Connors held with a pair of service winners, and
broke a final time for the match.
It was the 16th time in 20 Open appearances
Connors has made at least the quarterfinals. He is the oldest player to make
the quarterfinals since Ken Rosewall, who did so at 39 in 1974. His next
opponent will be even younger, 19-year-old Andre Agassi, the No. 6 seed who
defeated him in straight sets in the quarterfinals last year. "If I go out
and play like I did tonight, it would be a good time for you to show up,"
Connors said. A year ago Agassi rose out of nowhere to No. 3 in the world. But
this season he has made only one Grand Prix final, falling to No. 7 and under
criticism for his erratic behavior. So the Open can be another proving ground
for him, and his straight-set victory over Jim Grabb was convincing, 6-1, 7-5,
6-3. Agassi represents the last vestige of the future in the men's draw.
Chang
came to the Open seeded seventh after surprising the world on the slow clay in
the French, becoming the youngest winner of a men's Grand Slam event at 17. But
today his fast-court game was limited as he lost to Mayotte. Chang's loss
prevented a much anticipated rematch with Lendl, who would have been his
quarterfinal opponent. But the No. 1 player in the world almost didn't get
there either. Lendl trailed by service breaks in each of the first three sets,
and was never comfortable through their 3-hour 45-minute encounter. Chang led
by 5-2 in the first set, but Mayotte swept the next seven games, taking a 2-0
lead in the second. Serving at 5-3 in the first, Chang committed three straight
unforced errors to yield the game, his normally reliable groundstrokes going
just awry.
In the women's draw, all of the top eight seeds have reached the
quarterfinals, the first time in the open era that has happened in this
tournament. Four more seeds completed the round uneventfully. Top-ranked Steffi
Graf of West Germany had her serve broken for the second time in the tournament
but beat Rosalyn Fairbank of South Africa anyway, 6-4, 6-0. "I couldn't
continue to play like that," Graf said of her erratic first set. "It
was not possible." No. 3 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentine crushed No. 10
Conchita Martinez of Spain in a little more than an hour, 6-1, 6-1. No. 6
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, the 17-year-old French Open winner, made her
first Open quarterfinal with a 6-2, 6-2, victory over Barbara Paulus of
Austria. Graf's next opponent is eighth-seeded Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia,
a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 victor over Larisa Savchenko of the Soviet Union.
Memory Lane: Jimmy
Connors defaults match after tirade over line call
February 21, 2014
In this modern age of
collegiality and sportsmanship -- call it the Roger Federer effect -- it's
insane to even consider a top-ranked player defaulting a match just because he
felt like it. Yet that's precisely what happened 28 years ago today when the
one and only Jimmy Connors stormed off the court late in the fifth set of a
semifinal against Ivan Lendl at the 1986 Lipton International Players
Championships in Boca Raton, Fla. The source of Connors' ire? The umpiring, of
course.
In a testy match that
included code violations for both players, the fourth-ranked Connors lashed out
at chair umpire Jeremy Shales during a dispute over a line call with No. 1
Lendl leading 3-2, 30-love in the fifth set.
Here's what went down,
according to The New York Times:
Connors
charged the umpire's chair and demanded that the supervisor of officials, Ken
Farrar, and the tournament referee, Alan Mills, be summoned immediately. But
because the dispute involved a judgment call, there was no reason for Shales to
summon them. Instead, he advised Connors to resume play or face the
consequences.
After Connors was
penalized a point and then a game to fall behind, 5-2, Mills and Farrar walked
onto the court and told Connors he had no recourse in this instance. Farrar
told him it was in his best interests to play. But Connors refused, sitting
down and letting time expire. He then packed his racquets and marched off the court
to cheers and applause from the crowd.
The Times noted
that Shales "gave [Connors] a point penalty for a time violation, then
three code violations for a continued delay. Finally, after Connors had
exhausted all the time he was allotted by the rules to resume play, Shales
defaulted him."
Lendl's winning score
reads 1-6, 6-1, 6-2, 2-6, 5-2 DEF.
Connors'
tantrum -- a meltdown that led to $25,000
in fines and a 10-week suspension.
"You can only take so
much," Connors said after the match.
"I'm out there giving my blood. I felt I was sticking up for my
rights. All I want [Shales] to do is pay attention. If he's paying
attention on only one side of the court, that's not good enough. If there's
incompetence out there, you get somebody competent to do the job."
Connors recalled the match
in his book, The Outsider,
and let's just say he didn't exactly sweat the punishment.
"The things you have
to do to get some time off, right?" he writes. "Anyway, the
suspension I received was an opportunity for me to play a couple of special
events and a half a dozen exhibitions. I made a hell of a lot more money than I
would have playing the tournaments."
Lendl went on to beat No.
3 Mats Wilander in the final.
Memory Lane:
McEnroe-Connors dust-up
January 10, 2013
On Jan. 10, 1982,
top-ranked John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, then No. 3, almost came to blows
during the final of the Michelob Light Challenge in Rosemont, Ill. The match
had everything fans had come to expect from the Connors-McEnroe rivalry. It
turned into a tense five-set affair full of code violations, point penalties
and more arguments than you'd see at the Supreme Court.
In the fifth set, Connors
grew tired of McEnroe's delay tactics and crossed over the net to give him a
piece of his mind. And to stick a finger in his face, which McEnroe swatted
away before officials finally stepped in to separate the two.
Rewatching that clip, what
strikes me most is how nonchalant the announcers are about the confrontation.
Nowadays, Serena Williams yells at a linesperson from 15 feet away, and it's
front-page news. Marcos Baghdatis smacks four rackets into the ground and
the Internet is all "Oh, my gosh! Can you believe what this crazy guy just
did???" Here, Connors crosses the net, verbally abuses McEnroe, the two
get physical and the commentators sound like they're bored. Oh, how times have
changed.
Connors won the exhibition
match -- yes, it was an exhibition -- 6-7, 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4. Here's what
Connors said afterward, as quoted in Randy Walker's book, On This Day
in Tennis History: "I think we both have the same attitudes. He's
aggressive, I'm aggressive. We both stick up for our rights. But I stick up for
my rights in a different way. If I feel like I'm in the right, I'll step up. I
want some respect, not sloughing off. But there are certain limits."
FOR
THE RECORD: MCENROE'S TANTRUMS AND FINES
United Press International
Published: July 4, 1991 12:00 am
The record of John
McEnroe's altercations with tennis authorities since he broke into the
international circuit in 1977.
June 1977 -
Screamed obscenities at French Open line judge while winning mixed doubles
final with Mary Carillo, but was not fined.July 1980 - Earned first major
warning at Wimbledon for behavior during semifinal against Jimmy Connors.
July 1981 - Fined a
total of $6,000 at Wimbledon when he called chair umpire "pits of the
world" and told him, "You cannot be serious!" Referee Fred
Hoyles said he had come within two tantrums of disqualification during early
match against Tom Gulliksen. Defeated Bjorn Borg in a four-set final, but
boycotted champions dinner, resulting in another fine. Recommended additional
fine of $10,000 overturned on appeal.
May 1983 - Fined
$1,000 for calling Czech opponent Tomas Smid a "communist bastard" at
Forest Hills event.
June 1983 - Fined
$3,500 for clashing with photographer at courtside during French Open.
July 1983 - Fined
$325 for swearing at spectator during Wimbledon. Fines during the year totalled
$7,500.
May 1984 - Fined
$7,500 for misconduct during Stockholm Open.
June 1984 - Accrued
fines totalling $3,500 for swearing at linesman and other verbal abuse during
match against Connors at French Open.
January 1985 -
Dropped from U.S. Davis Cup team after "outrageous behavior" during
1984 final defeat by Sweden.
June 1985 - Loses
honorary membership of London's Queen's Club for abusing chairman's wife while
practicing. McEnroe later was reinstated.
December 1985 -
Fined $3,500 for three separate offenses at Australian Open, culminating with
verbal abuse of opponent Slobodan Zivojinovic.
January 1986 -
Beaten by Brad Gilbert at Masters finals in New York and fined $1,000 for
arguing with spectators.
September 1986 -
Received fines totalling $3,500 at U.S. Open after he and partner Peter Fleming
were disqualified for arriving late for men's doubles match. Fine broke down to
$750 for being late and $2,750 for saying what he thought about the
disqualification.
April 1987 - Fined
$2,000 for time-wasting during match at WCT event in Dallas.
May 1987 - Fined
$4,000 for walking off court during World Cup in Dusseldorf.
September 1987 -
Suspended two months and fined $10,000 for various offenses at U.S. Open.
July 1988 - Warned
for racket abuse during defeat against Australian Wally Masur at Wimbledon.
July 1989 -
Australian John Fitzgerald, a fourth-round loser to McEnroe, accuses him of
using tantrums to put off opponents.
January 1990 -
Thrown out of Australian Open and fined $6,500 after receiving third warning
for misbehavior against Mikael Pernfors.
April 1991 -
McEnroe admits own behavior on court "sickens me" after receiving a
code violation and point penalty during defeat by fellow American Todd Witsken
in Hong Kong.
July 1991 - Fined
$10,000 for swearing at linesman in Wimbledon loss against Stefan Edberg,
picked up by television microphone.
Total fines -
$69,500.
Wimbledon hands out one of biggest fines in history as
tournament sees some of worst ever player behaviour
Patrick Sawer, senior reporter
6 JULY 2017 • 7:05PM
This year’s Wimbledon has seem some of the
worst behaviour by players in recent years, figures for fines imposed so far
during the championships have shown.
Tournament officials have handed out the
second highest recorded financial penalty in Wimbledon’s history, imposing a
$15,000 (£11,500) fine on Bernard Tomic for
"unsportsmanlike conduct".
It came after the Australian admitted in a
post-match Press conference that he had faked an injury during his straight-sets
loss to the German Mischa Zverev in the first round, and that he was “bored”
with Wimbledon.
And Daniil Medvedev was handed three
individual fines totalling $14,500 (£11,200) - the third highest amount since
records began in 1991 - for unsportsmanlike conduct, when he threw coins
at the umpire’s chair on Wednesday.
The Russian was fined $4,000 as a warning for
insulting the Portuguese umpire, Mariana Alvez; $3,000 for again insulting the
umpire and $7,500 for tossing the coins at her chair. In just the first three
days of this year’s championships a total of $33,500 (£25,900) in fines has
been handed out for unsportsmanlike conduct.
That compares to the total $93,500 (£70,700)
handed out during the whole of last year’s tournament and the $62,500 (£40,000)
levied against players in 2015.
The fines highlight the pressure players are
competing under at what is regarded as the world’s greatest tennis tournament,
with Grand Slam officials quick to crack down on any offence deemed to be
against the rules and the spirit of the game.
Tim Henman, the former British number one and
four times Wimbledon semi finalist, said: “Players are under greater scrutiny
because the prize money has gone up.”
He added: "I think one thing for sure the
club have done a good job is really protecting the court. You smash your
racquet on a grass court there'll be some unhappy groundsmen and you'll get
some pretty big fines.”
The money will be docked from the players’
prize money, with Tomic losing a third of the £35,000 he earned for his first
round appearance.
It comes as Andy Murray weighed into the row over
players withdrawing from their first round games at
Wimbledon and still picking up prize money by calling for changes to be
made.
The Wimbledon champion said he hopes
authorities intervene to stop the practise which has split opinion among
players and commentators at the championships.
The row began on Tuesday after Roger Federer
questioned rules which meant that players who started matches but then withdrew
were still entitled to collect £35,000.
Two successive matches on Centre Court were
cut short when the opponents of Federer and Novak Djokovic withdrew.
Tomic’s fine exceeds that handed out to
Heather Watson in 2016 when she was fined $12,000 (£9,000 at the time) for
smashing her racquet against the court during her first-round loss to Annika
Beck.
The highest recorded single fine in Wimbledon
history remains that given to Fabio Fognini, who plays Murray on Friday.
He was fined $20,000 (£11,600 at the time) in
2014 for unsportsmanlike conduct, after he angrily threw his racket on to
the grass, and a further £7,500 for shouting at the umpire and unsportsmanlike
conduct.
Tomic’s post-match confession that he summoned
a doctor and trainer to court 14 as a strategy, when there was nothing wrong
with him, on top of his comments about being bored with the championships, is
understood to have infuriated officials.
The Australian player’s behaviour also led to
him being dropped by one of his two principal sponsors, the racquet
manufacturer Head.
In a statement, Head said: “We were extremely
disappointed with the statements made at Wimbledon by one of our sponsored
athletes, Bernard Tomic.
“His opinions in no way reflect our own
attitude for tennis, our passion, professionalism and respect for the game.”
But Tomic said he would appeal against the
fine, saying: “I was being honest. People are saying the fine is for calling
for the doctor, but it’s not. I don’t think the fine is fair.”
A contrite Medvedev apologised for his
behaviour following his match, saying: “I was disappointed with the result. In
the heat of the moment, I did a bad thing. I apologize for this.”
He denied he had meant the coin tossing
gesture to suggest he thought the umpire was corrupt, adding: “I don't know why
I did it. I was frustrated to lose the match. Maybe there were some bad calls.
It can happen in sports.”.
Tennis fans have voiced their anger at the
behaviour of some players, particularly Medvedev’s coin throwing.
SERENA WILLIAMS:
$82,500
Serena
Williams was fined a record $82,500 for her tirade at a line
judge during a 2009 U.S. Open semifinal match against Kim Clijsters. While
Serena’s foul language was bad enough –“I’ll take this ball and shove in down
your fu%*ng throat” –the 17-time Grand Slam champion approached the line judge
in what the tournament director, Jim Curley, called “a threatening manner.”
There’s nothing serene about verbal abuse and
racquet-brandishing. The drama began when Serena Williams, serving at 15-30,
faulted on a first serve. On the second serve the line judge called a
foot-fault, which made it a double fault and 15-40. That’s when Serena's
meltdown began. Because of the outburst, the chair umpire awarded a penalty
point to Clijsters. Serena lost the match: 6-4, 7-5.
