So, another day, another slide show - and another one that interests me somewhat :whistle:

Top 10 Tennis Bad Boys

The question is:

Who is the worst?

So who do you think was the most-ill tempered of this lot, whether it be with players or with umpires, or just in general?

And are there any they missed? (I see good ol' Lleyton didn't make the list this time!!)

There can only be one winner of this poll :D

And who might that be? :rolleyes:

Mac trod a fine line, but he knew the rules and (usually)stayed within them. Had umpires been more professional, and controlled players better he would never have played up so much. Whether Mac played up also depended on his opponent (rarely did if ever with Borg, and often did with Connors!)

Nastase was the complete gamesman. I like Ille's quote about Mac (which he shouted about Mac whilst on the other side of the court to him!) : "He's worse than me and Connors put together!" :lol:

And Nastase was funny in that he'd totally get in the face of his opponent, wind them up something silly, and then minutes after a match was over he'd invite him out to dinner with his wife! roflmao

It was systematic and strategic.. So Nastase gets my vote..

The one that I liked least was Gilbert.. miserable son of a gun on court, he was.. always muttering to himself, being negative and niggly. At least the other players exploded and were done with it. Gilbert was a stick in the mud as part of his normal game! Mr 'How to win ugly'? Mmore like Mr 'How to play ugly, full stop!'. :angry:

well it's john mcenroe for sure.

Marcelo Rios- didnt he briefly end up in Police custody :blink:

It's tough to pick who was the worst as they are all different. But guess Mac is the obvious choice for the top spot, although in a way i'm with Petalp on Nastase - aka Nasty. he really was a total gamesman and really was a nasty sod on the court, awful to his opponents but very entertaining.

Interesting how I think only one modern player is in there - Safin. Goes to show just how things have changed in terms of th etype of people who play the game. so much more focused I suppose, which is good for some people's tennis but IMO bad for the game as the characters and the drama are part and parcel of it and there are not enough these days. I love a good bust up! roflmao

I personalyl dont; think Lleyton is that bad, I just think that some people cant; stick his fighting spirit and the intensity he brings with it. Based on last years behaviour I dont; see ti beign long before Nalbandian is in there. Coria maybe?

I think Nastase should win this one. More people here probably remember McEnroe move vividly, because Nastase 1) is a bit further back in history than Mac and 2) didn't have nearly as visits to the "big stage" as Mac.

Connors - a real bully who did not use humour so much as unpleasantness. He put Lendl through it and I could not stand him.

What did Connors do to Lendl then im too young so? :P

Well spotted Barrystar. I agree with you. This guy won many of his matches including at least 2 GSs by unsettling his opponent in the rudest, gratuitous manner.

I guess being beaten 17 times in a row by Lendl since then taught him a lesson!

I agree. Connors was a disgrace. I was a big Lendl fan and it was always great to see him put Jimbo in his place.

John offcourse! :shrug:

I remember watching at least two games (one at Wimbledon in 1984) where Connors contrived to get under Lendl's skin in a v. unpleasant fashion. On one occasion he somehow got involved with Lendl's challenge of a linesman's decision and chucked a few insults directly at Lendl (saying he was stupid or its equivalent) which made the crowd laugh.

Lendl could have done more to avoid playing into Connors' hands like that, and I have to accept that the crowd played its (unattractive) part . I always liked Lendl (I wanted him to beat Cash in 1987) but he looked like a drowned rat, had a whiney voice, probably had less of a command of English than Connors, and did not have a real rapport with the fans. That was a potent cocktail for Connors (who, at 32, was both 8 years older than Lendl and old enough to know better) to turn to his advantage at at time when Lendl was starting to get the better of him in their rivalry. The Wimbledon match was the second last time Connors ever beat Lendl.

I found his behavour totally odious - it seemed really calculated. My take was that he saw Lendl upset with a call and decided to try and get Lendl more wound up. I would say that was a worse type of misbehaviour than Mac's, which I also disliked, but which seemed to be more to do with a rather childish lack of control.

I absolutely despised McEnroe. In my opinion his tantrums were mostly fake and designed to upset his opponent's rhythm. It was noticeable that 1) most of his tantrums took place when he was in a losing position in matches and 2) for some reason whenever he played Borg the hissy fits never happened because Mac knew that the Swede was immune to this type of gamesmanship. McEnroe in my opinion was a cheat.
As a huge fan of Lendl I particularly enjoyed the following clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xAPwx3z950
:)