By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Nick Kyrgios nd Stefanos Tsitsipas shared a red-hot Wimbledon showdown and icy handshake afterward.
Photo credit: Getty
A tennis court comes with seventy-eight feet between baselines offering plenty of safe space and little room to hide.
Factor in the pressure of tournament play, thousands of screaming fans and sometime crackling antipathy between players and the court can feel like a pressure cooker.
More: Federer on Security Denying Him Wimbledon Entry
What happens when raging players blow their tops and unload on opponents, chair umpires and even fans?
Continuing our Best of 2022 series, we spotlight some of the ATP Tour's fiercest feuds of 2022.
Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas have a long and heated history, including nearly coming to blows on court in Miami years ago.
Persistent paternal chatter coming from Apostolos Tsitsipas, Stefanos' dad, was the shove that pushed Medvedev over the cliffs of composure during their Australian Open semifinal showdown.
What followed was vintage verbal Meddy.
Medvedev tore into chair umpire Jaume Campistol urging the ump to hit Tsitsipas with a coaching violation.
“Bro, Are you mad?” Medvedev asks, adding: “For what? And his father can talk every point. No, are you stupid? His father can talk every point. HIS FATHER CAN TALK EVERY POINT! HIS FATHER CAN TALK EVERY POINT! ANSWER MY QUESTION!”
Here we see a fuming Medvedev fuse his chorus of complaint "His father can talk every point!" with a reference to a raging John McEnroe's famed challenge to a Wimbledon chair umpire "The question! Answer the question, jerk!" Later, after the blowout at the changeover, Medvedev called the umpire a “small cat.”
After Medvedev's complaint, the tournament assigned an official to the Tsitsipas box. Medvedev went on to win the match. Tsitsipas later brought Aussie Mark Philippoussis on board as a coaching consultant and sounding board for his dad's chatter.
Alexander Zverev's madness in Mexico was one of the worst meltdowns of the 2022 season.
Defending Acapulco champion Zverev saved match points battling by Jenson Brooksby 3-6, 7-6(10), 6-2 in a three hour, 19-minute marathon match that ended at 4:55 a.m. in Acapulco.
Playing doubles the next day, Zverev absolutely lost it.
The Olympic gold-medal champion went ballistic at what he felt was an unfair call during the match tiebreak. An irate Zverev rapped his racquet three times in a row against the base of the chair umpire Alessandro Germani's seat prompting the chair umpire to move his foot to avoid a thrashing after Zverev and Marcelo Melo lost 6-2, 4-6, 10-6.
The world No. 3 was booted from the tournament for unsportsmanlike conduct and fined following that vicious display.
Asked about Zverev's outburst after his Dubai defeat to Jannik Sinner, Murray called the ATP Finals champion's behavior "dangerous, reckless." "Look, it was not good. It was dangerous, reckless," Murray told the media in Dubai. "Yeah, I mean, I obviously understand lots of players, athletes across lots of sports, can get very frustrated. Certainly me, myself, I've not always acted in the way I would want on the tennis court. I'm certainly not claiming to be an angel. I'm not perfect myself."
After Zverev was bounced out of Acapulco, the 24-year-old German issued a statement on Instagram apologizing for his antics .Zverev was hit with an 8-week suspension and an additional $25,000 in fines for his “aggravated behavior” during an incident in which he struck an umpire’s chair and intimidated an official at Acapulco. However, Zverev's eight-week suspension will be waived if he stays out of trouble and does not incur a further Code Violation before his probation period ends on February 22, 2023.
"It is difficult to put into words how much I regret my behavior during and after the doubles match," Zverev wrote. "I have privately apologized to the chair umpire because my outburst towards him was wrong and unacceptable, and I am only disappointed in myself. It just should not have happened and there is no excuse."
In Rome, Denis Shapovalov crossed the net.
Then he crossed the line.
Watch an irate Shapovalov scream "Shut the F--k Up!" at Rome fans jeering him after he was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct point penalty for crossing the net.
The Canadian left-hander wasn't yelling "Forza" either.
In a testament to Shapo's argumentative focus, note how he re-engages debate immediately after screaming "Shut the F--k Up!" to fans.
The craziness all went down during the second set of Shapovalov's 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3 Rome victory over Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
The lanky Italian, who bears a striking resemblance to Karate Kid actor Ralph Macchio, challenged a Shapovalov second serve that was initially called good. Sonego circled a ball mark, the chair umpire inspected it and agreed the serve was out resulting in a double fault.
An incredulous Shapovalov argued it was the wrong mark and climbed over the net—a clear rule violation—to show where he thought the mark landed.
The chair umpire calmly explained the call then informed Shapovalov he'd be hit with unsportsmanlike conduct for crossing the net. Cue chaos.
Nick Kygios and Stefanos Tsitsipas gave us a wild Wimbledon match to remember bubbling with trash talk during and after the match.
The mercurial Kyrgios rode his massive serve and major mind games to topple fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(7) in a wild, crazy and contentious Clash on Court No. 1.
Both men were hit with code violations as Court No. 1 felt like the octagon at times. Tsitsipas summed up this tennis tempest of sound and flurry as "a circus."
The match saw Kyrgios deploy the underarm tweener serve, some superb drop shots and near constant chatter that unnerved Tsitsipas. The Greek, who belted a ball into the stands and splattered another shot off the back wall, spent a few games trying to tag Kyrgios and eventually accomplished his mission drilling the Aussie in the chest.
It didn't end at match point.
It didn't end with the post-match handslap either.
Tsitsipas called Kyrgios out as a bully in his post-match presser, while Kyrgios claimed Tsitsipas "is not liked."
"It's constant bullying, that's what he does," Tsitsipas said.
Kyrgios laughed off the bullying charge saying "I did nothing towards Stefanos today that was disrespectful."
"I don't know what to say. I'm not sure how I bullied him," Kyrgios told the media. He was the one hitting balls at me, he was the one that hit a spectator, he was the one that smacked it out of the stadium. I didn't do anything.
"I was actually like -- apart from me just going back and forth to the umpire for a bit, I did nothing towards Stefanos today that was disrespectful, I don't think. I was not drilling him with balls."
A fired-up Kyrgios threw his entire arsenal—and nearly ever gamesmanship card in the deck—to beat the Greek for second time on grass in the last three weeks.
The tennis court nearly turned into the Octagon at the Open d'Orleans.
Adrian Andreev defeated Corentin Moutet 2-6, 7-6, 7-6 then the Bulgarian bumped Moutet at the net before the pair got into a physical altercation at the net at the conclusion of the match.
So what caused the bad blood this shove-fest ?
Afterward, Moutet took to Instagram to share his side of the story.
“I don't want to apologize for what happened late in the game,” Moutet said in comments translated from French. “When a player allows himself to say "fuck you" twice while looking me in the eye, I can't help but make him understand in my own way that these are not things that are done.”
Moutet says he was threatened by Andreev and asked to meet him off the court so that the pair could continue the argument...or settle it.
“He threatened me and asked me to wait for him at the exit of the court ... something I did of course I have trouble finding him for 10 minutes,” Moutet said. “Indeed he was hidden on the other side behind 6 security people.”
The Frenchman said he looks forward to a future discussion rather than a throw-down.
“I heard your threats so when you get out of the room they hid you in I will be very happy to see you carry them out,” Moutet said. “So I'm waiting for you impatiently, we can talk calmly.”