"If I had known the new rule, I would have contained myself" - When John McEnroe opened up about being defaulted from the Australian Open
One of the greatest players of all-time, John McEnroe has also had more than his fair share of controversial moments.
One notable occasion was when he was defauled from the 1990 Australian Open for unsportsmanlike conduct. McEnroe entered the tournament as the fourth seed and reached the fourth round following straight-set wins over Thierry Tulasne, Alexander Antonitsch and Daniel Goldie.
The former World No. 1 faced Sweden's Mikael Pernfors in the fourth round and the match had a number of heated moments. First, McEnroe stared at a lineswoman in an act of disagreeing with a call she made, which saw the chair umpire give him a code of conduct warning. He later received another violation for slamming his racket to the ground.
This angered McEnroe and he called for the supervisor, who claimed that his racket abuse violation was justified. The American had another outburst, which led to another violation -- and in turn, a default.
"As the supervisor turned away, I made an extremely rude suggestion, in a very loud voice. There was a gasp in the stands— McEnroe had topped himself. 'Verbal abuse, audible obscenity, Mr. McEnroe,' the umpire said. 'Default. Game, set, and match, Mr. Pernfors,'" John McEnroe wrote in his book 'You Cannot be Serious.'
"It was the only other time in my career, besides the doubles at the 1986 U.S. Open, that I had been defaulted. I had also made history by becoming the first player defaulted out of a Grand Slam event in the Open era," he added.
McEnroe, however, went on to claim that he had not been made aware that the default rule had changed from four violations to three. The former World No. 1 stated that he would've contained himself had he known about the rules, adding that he would have won the match if he had been able to see it through to the end. At the time of default, he was leading by two sets to one and down a break in the fourth.
"The one and only time that I went over the edge, I literally didn’t realize that the default rule had been changed, from four steps to three. At the moment the words flew out of my mouth, I thought, “Okay, I’ve lost the game.” I thought that it was going to be four games to two in the fourth, but that I was still up two sets to one. I still felt certain I’d win the match," John McEnroe wrote.
"But when the umpire said, “Game, set, match,” the first thing I thought was that my agent, Sergio Palmieri, had forgotten to tell me about the rule change. Obviously, I can’t just say, 'It happened because my agent forgot to tell me about the change.' Of course I have to take the responsibility for the whole incident. I truly believe, though, that if I had known the new rule, I would have contained myself," he added.
John McEnroe had a 18-5 record at the Australian Open
John McEnroe made sporadic appearances at the Australian Open like most of the top players of his time. He never won the Grand Slam and had a 18-5 record there.
McEnroe's best outing at the Australian Open came in 1983 when he was seeded second. He reached the semifinals of the tournament before losing 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 to eventual champion Mats Wilander. The American's final appearance at the Australian Open came in 1992, where he reached the quarterfinals before losing to Wayne Ferreira.