Certain people do things in life and according to how big or small the thing is the person may never shake the tag that they have been given, sometimes it's a tag they would give anything to lose.
The recent Davis Cup tie between Great Britain and Canada is a classic example with the young Canadian Denis Shapovalov being defaulted for hitting the umpire fair in the eye with the ball. Did you see it ? Un f....... believable !!!
Not quite certain what the 17 year old was actually trying to do because if he had missed the umpire it probably would have hit a spectator and perhaps Denis may have had a Lawyer knocking on his door the next day with a Law suit ready to file. Maybe it was lucky the umpire got in the way, I am sure the ATP will smooth things over.
Over the years in tennis we have seen some classic things unfold in regards to certain antics becoming almost legendary. Mac the mouth gets paid now days to do Television advertisements because his on court antics were larger than life.
For the record Denis, don't be too upset, even the great John McEnroe got defaulted once as well, just maybe don't make a habit of it young fella.....
One of the greatest things I have ever witnessed in tennis was a young Swedish gentleman by the name of Mats who at the same age as Shapovalov took out the French Open beating four top ten seasoned players in the process. However it was his 'antics' in the semi final against Clerc that got people talking, for all the right reasons.
At 6-5 and match point in the fourth set Mats watched a huge Clerc forehand go whistling by him that was in fact called out, Mats didn't agree so he walked over to the umpire and asked if the point could be replayed. Yep, he asked the umpire just that. So that's what they did and this time Mats won the short rally that took him to the final against Vilas which he won in 4 sets. Well played young fella...
Jimmy Connors did so many things on a tennis court over his career that finding things that stood out from the rest is sort of like going through the entire ABBA song collection and trying to find the best one, not easy. One stands out for me though with Jimbo.
The Michelob light challenge exhibition match between Jimmy and Mac, also in 1982 was perhaps one of the most entertaining as Jimbo felt the urge to climb over the net and walk to within an inch of Mac's face to tell him that he didn't appreciate his behaviour. The crazy thing was this, it was only an exhibition match, yep an exhibition that Connors won 6-7, 7-5, 6-7, 7-5, 6-4. You reckon the crowd got their money's worth there ??
Ivan Lendl, now there was a man who had such a big forehand that many opponents didn't even see it coming, just ask Sanchez, McEnroe and the late great Vitas Gerulaitis. All of those guys did something to make the big Czech angry enough for him to smack a ball straight at them and none were quick enough to get out of the way. Perhaps that's why Andy employed Lendl as his Coach, to maybe put a bit of mongrel into his game.
I wrote a post just recently on the rather entertaining Austrian, Stefan Koubek who attempted to strangle his opponent at the change of ends during their match. I found that antic entertaining to say the least but hey, Koubek was simply expressing his feelings, nothing wrong with that, it keeps life interesting.
Nick Kyrgios, well he has taken things to a whole new level with his rather below the belt dig at Stan and in particular his girlfriend, possibly not the smartest thing he has ever said on a tennis court but Nick is a walking, talking advertisement for tennis one way or the other. He simply just does or says what he feels at the time, tennis can do that to your mind, it can drive a sane person insane, no question at all. Was Nick ever sane do you think ??
I think we have all done something silly on a tennis court, myself included. Ten years ago I played a local singles competition and admittedly my head wasn't in the right place to be playing tennis as I had a bit going on in my personal life.
To put it into perspective, exactly a year earlier I had won the corresponding match against the same player 6-0, 6-1 however I was furious with myself as I had served for a double bagel and lost my serve to love !!
This time around I lost in a third set breaker and before walking off court I smashed my racket into three pieces and threw it over the fence before commencing a long walk home. Not my proudest moment but I have been a good lad ever since, sort of anyhow. On court I have been well behaved, off it, well I am still an argumentative prick.
If you are going to be remembered for something in tennis, well personally I like the Mats Wilander gesture of 1982 in Paris. Mats will long time be remembered as a nice guy, that's a good way to be remembered I reckon............
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