In tennis, few things arouse the crowd more than confrontations, especially those involving players, umpires and line judges.
Who can forget Ilie Nastase pulling down his pants and mooning the chair umpire Charles Hare in Palm Springs in 1976? Or John McEnroe at Wimbledon in 1981 screaming, “You cannot be serious, man!” after what he perceived to be an incorrect call, and referring to the umpire Edward James as the “absolute pits of the world”?
Or that night at the 2009 United States Open when Serena Williams cursed at and threatened to stuff a tennis ball down the throat of the line judge Shino Tsurubuchi for calling a foot fault, an incident that cost Williams her semifinal match against Kim Clijsters?