Marcos Baghdatis was fined for an extraordinary racket-smashing tantrum yesterday, but in a sport known for its meltdowns, fellow players greeted the outburst calmly.
Trailing by two sets to love in Wednesday’s second-round clash with Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, the Cypriot stunned spectators by breaking not one, not two, not three, but four rackets as he briefly lost the plot.
The 26-year-old did not even bother to take two of his rackets out of their plastic wrappers.
Photo: AFP
As footage of the tirade went viral, Baghdatis, beaten in four sets, was fined US$800 by the tournament referee yesterday for “abuse of rackets and equipment.”
Sporadic bad on-court behavior is nothing new in a sport that experienced the spectacular hissy-fits of US player John McEnroe, who became defined as much by his bad-boy antics as his tennis.
Five-time Australian Open winner Serena Williams escaped with a US$2,000 fine for an outburst at a chair umpire during last year’s US Open final — her second such incident at the event in two years.
Williams said yesterday that she used to be a racket-breaker, but realized now that there were better ways to let out frustrations.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga said he could understand the depths of rage which drive players.
“But, anyway, my father told me all the time: ‘If you break the racket, I will break you.’ So I go easy with the racket,” he said.
Big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic says he does not have the luxury of being able to break rackets.
“I have 10 rackets. I need to play with 10 rackets. I don’t have any to break,” he said.
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