John McEnroe still blames someone else for his Australian Open disqualification.
With the first major of the year already here, no one can forget McEnroe’s dismal exit in Melbourne in 1990.
McEnroe is regarded as one of the best tennis players of all-time, with the American a member of the Tennis Hall of Fame.
The 65-year-old, picked up 155 titles in his career and is a 17-time Grand Slam champion in doubles and singles, as well as a former World No.1 in both.
Having won seven Grand Slam singles titles, three at Wimbledon and four at the US Open, the French Open and Australian Open eluded McEnroe.
Remarkably, he only played in Melbourne five times during his career with his first result coming in 1983 when he reached the semi-finals.
Come 1990, in his fourth Australian Open and ranked No.5 in the world, McEnroe was in the fourth round and looking to capture his first Grand Slam singles title since 1984.
The American went on to make Melbourne history that year but for the wrong reasons as he became the first player to be disqualified at a Grand Slam for 27 years.
Up two sets to one and into the fourth set, McEnroe – no stranger to a run-in with officials over the years – received a series of code violations from the umpire at the time, Gerry Armstrong.
McEnroe’s warnings included one for unsportsmanlike conduct, racket abuse and his third and final code violation came after he swore during conversations with umpire and supervisors.
“Default Mr. McEnroe. Game, set, match,” Armstrong announced to the crowd.
The crowd of 15,000 rose and booed the umpire, chanting their support for McEnroe, as the American himself stood with his hands on his hips, stunned.
The last player to be disqualified from a Grand Slam for misconduct at the time had been Willie Alvarez of Spain in the 1963 French Open.
Reflecting on the incident which will be 35 years to the day on January 23, McEnroe – now a respected analyst for ESPN – claims such a disqualification would never happen in today’s game.
“I’m like a dinosaur,” McEnroe told the New York Times. “Who the hell is going to get defaulted now because he lost his cool?”
The American also added that he was unaware of the rule change, as a disqualification would result after a four-stop process but McEnroe was defaulted after three.
“I remember the first thing I thought when I got defaulted was that my manager Sergio Palmieri didn’t tell me they changed the rule,” McEnroe also added.
The last player to get defaulted at a Grand Slam, is 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic, who was disqualified at the US Open in 2020 after accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball.