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Our Promise: “One Great Story Every Issue!” World Tennis Tennis Tirades And Tantrums: Gazette A Brief History December 2018 Vol 10, No 4 BY JOHN MARTIN veteran umpire ex- Who can forget the claimed that Ad- argument at the 2018 ams had thrown U.S. Open women’s Ramos and his fel- final between an an- low rules keepers gry Serena Williams “under the bus.” and a duty-driven The New York chair umpire, Carlos Times Columnist Ramos? Juliet Macur wrote Whether you had a an analysis head- front-row seat in the lined “Serena Wil- photographers’ pit or liams Picks the watched from your liv- Wrong Time to ing room couch as Make the Right cameras and micro- SCREEN CAPTURE: Serena Willams points at US Point.” phones swarmed Open Chair Umpire Carlos Ramos on YouTube. Williams insist- around them, the ed that men are spectacle won’t soon fade rarely punished so severely away. ˈtīˌrāde for similar behavior, that Tennis fans are no noun coaching violations — ac- strangers to tantrums or ti- a long, angry speech tions admitted by her coach rades, but the moment usual- of criticism or accusation. but denied repeatedly by ly passes with little introspec- Williams — are routinely ig- tion or even recollection. "a tirade of abuse" nored in men’s matches. Williams’ outburst, which included calling The debate ultimately sank beneath waves Ramos a “thief” and “liar” and repeatedly de- of recrimination. manding an apology, was carried out in an an- Questions arose: “Are men given softer gry tone that was audible to millions. treatment or harsher? Why do some Ultimately, it led to a series of players consistently engage in verbal match-ending exchanges that stunned abuse? Are they interrupting play the tennis universe as have few sports merely as a way of throwing their op- altercations in modern history. ponents off stride? What’s behind Condemnations flew from all direc- their behavior? tions. USTA President Katrina Adams A review of tennis histories and criticized Ramos’s rigidity, then eased newspaper and magazine accounts back in mild apology that managed to suggests that over the early years of infuriate umpires and line judges. One Ilie Nastase the Open Era, perhaps half-a-dozen Page 2 World Tennis Gazette December 2018 Connors’Behavior? “He Needs To Be Unpopular” SCUFFLE: Jimmy Connors, left, found a novel way of stopping Corrado Barazzutti of Italy from challenging a call during their 1977 U.S. Open match. Connors won in straight sets. Continued from Page 1 $10,000, according to Bud Collins’ Tennis Encyclopedia. players, mostly men, established ca- So it’s not surprising that McEnroe, reers marked by extreme outbursts. one of the tennis world’s most recog- “You cannot be serious!” John nizable disputants, recently said Sere- McEnroe’s repeated shout remains na Williams had no reason to apolo- among the most memorable and belli- gize. cose. It happened in a 1981 match at “To who?,” he ungrammatically Wimbledon. John McEnroe asked Tennis World reporter Luigi “Jerk!” he added, sticking with his Gatto. tone of disbelief at a linesman’s “She used a lot of cards. If call upheld by the chair umpire. ‘thief’ is the worst word she What few recall from his first- used, I have got some bad news round match that same Wimble- for you. don was the crude slur McEnroe “There are a lot of other play- aimed at Chair Umpire Ted ers, including myself...that have James. He called him “pits of the done far worse.” world,” for which he was fined McEnroe was on safe ground $14,750. even if he was speaking of his Initially, the French seemed Fernando Gonzalez own tantrums alone. One year in more lenient. In 1983, they as- the 1980s, he forfeited nearly sessed McEnroe $200,000 in prize $3,350 for kicking a World Tennis Gazette money to pay fines photographer’s cam- Vol 10 No 4 December 2018 for outrageous be- era and shouting ob- havior. (Serena Wil- A magazine for players, coaches, fans, scenities at a chair and friends of tennis throughout the world. liams was fined umpire. Eight years Each issue contains a story and photo- $17,000 for her be- later, he was still at it, graphs on a single subject. All are the re- havior toward Um- “profoundly sassing” sponsibility of the editor. To subscribe, pire Ramos). a Wimbledon line comment, or make suggestions, email: Richard Osborn The rough esti- [email protected]. Editor: John Martin judge at a cost of mate of McEnroe’s Page 3 World Tennis Gazette May 2018 Nastase Often Infuriated, Distracted Opponents penalties ($611,742 in 2018 dollars) is It was during the semifinals of the from Bud Collins, the authoritative editor 1977 U.S. Open, Flink recalled, and author of three remarkable histories when Forest Hills’ courts were made of tennis. of gritty, greenish particles that Few skirmishes escaped Collins in his served as the American version of lengthy career at The Boston Globe and clay. NBC News’s long-running Breakfast at Corrado Barazzutti of Italy was Wimbledon. the victim of that incident, Flink said. One amusing but little reported scuffle He had pointed to a mark outside happened at the French Open in 2009. the line and invited the chair umpire Bud Collins Fernando Gonzalez of Chile added a ma- to inspect it. neuver to the list of over-the-top com- “Connors ran over and moved plaints: Challenging a line call, he walked his shoe over the mark, and to the area, sat down on the clay, and smirked, as if to say, ‘Well, we won’t rubbed his posterior over the disputed have this to worry about,’ ” said spot. Flink, a member of the International The call, of course, stood. But Gonza- Tennis Hall of Fame. lez sat. And then he rose to resume his Connors often acted to antago- semifinal match, which had halted for a nize the crowd as well as the chair changeover. umpire. There were deep psycho- Gonzalez protested or glared at many Steve Flink logical reasons, according to a calls in his loss to Robin Soderling of lengthy article in the January, 1978 Sweden, but his sit-down gesture topped issue of Sport magazine. Its head- (or bottomed) them all. line: “The Self-Destruction of Jimmy In his heyday of the 1970s, Ilie Nas- Connors.” tase of Romania was one of the most no- Journalist Marty Bell wrote “He torious disrupters of matches, Collins not- had turned this event (the U.S. ed. Open) into a summary of his stormy Once he faced the chair and spat dur- career by alternately dazzling people ing a U.S. Open match. Another time, he with his tennis and offending them placed a racket between his legs in an with his antics. This dichotomy has always been present in his complex obscene gesture. Dick Schaap “Nastase was a player who exploded nature. easily and walked out of numerous tournaments,” “It seems he needs to be unpopular so he wrote Collins. One time, he reported, Nastase liter- systematically puts off everyone until he ally ran out of a match. stands by himself against the world.” It happened in London one year. Nastase’s Connors could be moody. So could the gamesmanship so completely infuriated his oppo- mercurial Pancho Gonzalez. After spending nent, Clark Graebner, that Graebner “crossed over several days on the road with Gonzalez as he the net and offered to flatten Ilie if he didn’t be- barnstormed the country playing Lew Hoad in have. Nastase fled the court.” 1958, the sportswriter and broadcaster Dick Jimmy Connors, influenced by Nastase, once Schaap wrote: scuffed away a mark that might have cost him a “Popularity has never been one of Gonza- point, according to Steve Flink, a former editor lez’s goals. On the tennis court he is powerful of World Tennis Magazine and a columnist for the and quick. Off the court he is a riddle, a man Tennis Channel. alone against the world.” Page 4 World Tennis Gazette December 2018 A Sudden, Unexpected Stroke from a Mercurial Pancho Gonzalez One of Gonzalez’s contemporaries described which angry players punched and roughed up how he once gained revenge for what he per- Italian Open officials, one a line judge, the oth- ceived as a series of mistaken er the tournament referee. calls. “In 1995 at the French Ted Schroeder, the U.S. Open,” Collins added, men’s champion in1942 and “service line judge Pascal Ma- the Wimbledon titlist in1949, ria was sent to the hospital said Gonzales once went into after being nailed by a racket a slow boil over calls that were thrown in anger by Carsten going against him. Arriens, who was... disquali- Angry at the chair umpire, fied.” Gonzales looked for a way to What’s the bottom line for respond, Schroeder said. Fi- tennis? Here’s the Internation- nally, on a changeover, Gon- al Tennis Federation’s conclu- zales approached the umpire’s sion: chair and looked up. The um- “Carlos Ramos’ decisions pire looked down. Suddenly, were in accordance with the Gonzalez swung his racket, relevant rules and were reaf- decapitating the umpire’s mi- firmed by the US Open’s deci- crophone. sion to fine Serena Wil- “Officiating can be danger- liams…” ous,” reported Collins’s Tennis It’s an argument likely to Encyclopedia, co-authored by PROFILES IN SPORT: Writers boil for years. I can’t help won- Zander Hollander. It describes probed motivations of Jimmy dering what Bud Collins would two instances in the 1970s in Connors and Pancho Gonzalez.