With John McEnroe competing at the Outback Champions Series event at Boston’s Agganis Arena, Inside Tennis takes a look back at three decades of meltdowns to remember.
1. ’81 Wimbledon: McEnroe was admittedly “tight as a piano wire” when he faced Tom Gullikson in the first round at Wimbledon in ’81. When one of his serves was called out midway through the second set, he threw his racket and uttered the now immortal phrase: “MAN, YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!” toward chair ump Ted James. “The devils were crawling all over my brain that afternoon,” McEnroe would later recall.
2. ’84 Stockholm: Struggling against Swede Anders Jarryd in the semis, a frustrated McEnroe cleared a refreshment table with his racket during a changeover. Glass shattered and soda sprayed on fans in the first and second rows, among them the King of Sweden. Fortunately for McEnroe, His Majesty got a kick out of his antics. Said McEnroe, “I was begging to be defaulted. And they wouldn’t default me.”
3. ’87 U.S. Open: Up a set and serving for the second against Bobo Zivojinovic in the third round, Johnny Mac went ballistic after a pair of calls went against him. The New Yorker went after chair ump Richard Ings, berating the 22-year-old with a profanity-laced tirade. McEnroe was subsequently hit with three code violations, a $7,500 fine and an automatic two-month suspension. Said Ken Farrar, the supervisor of officials, “I spent a great deal of time and thought over the decision…But it was intolerable. What he did was an unacceptable situation.”
4. ’92 New Haven: Talk about “channeling” your energy. Mac got downright candid with the courtside camera at the Volvo International in New Haven. After dumping a shot into the net at 5-5 in the first-set tiebreaker of his three-plus-hour 6-7(8), 7-5, 7-6(3) second-round win over Frenchman Thierry Guariola, Mac infamously pushed over the ESPN camera (he later claimed that he meant to push the camera up, not tip it over). The crowd, much of which had previously been pro McEnroe, booed loudly. “It’s just kind of ridiculous to go out there and put myself in a position where I end up doing something stupid,” said McEnroe, who was fined $3,000 for the incident. “It’s just not necessary. I don’t need it and tennis doesn’t need it.”
5. ’08 Newport: Pushing 50, Mac proved he hasn’t softened much by getting tossed from his opening-round match against Mal Washington at the Hall of Fame Champions Cup. While arguing a line call, McEnroe was given a code violation warning for uttering an obscenity. When he kept up his tirade against chair ump Ray Brodeur, he drew two abuse-of-official penalties. As the argument progressed, fans started yelling at McEnroe, who responded by giving them the finger and was thrown out. “Has anything changed? I guess he has one of those explosive personalities, you could say,” said Washington. “I have an issue when my opponent starts berating people, fans and umpires.”
*HONORABLE MENTION
’90 Australian Open: Mac became the first player defaulted from a Slam in the Open Era when he imploded against Mikael Pernfors in the fourth round in Melbourne. “The details aren’t really important,” recalls his brother Patrick McEnroe. “A crying baby, a couple of close line calls, a few costly errors, and a few choice, vulgar words directed at tournament officials.”
