Australian Open: When Sachin Tendulkar's childhood idol became the first to be disqualified from a Grand Slam

The year's first Grand Slam is in full swing at Melbourne Park, as the Australian Open has once again captivated the tennis world from Down Under.

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The usual suspects among the men’s singles title contenders — Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic — are through to the next rounds without much fuss. In fact, there have been no major-name casualties reported from the ‘People’s Slam’ so far. It has been smooth sailing Down Under in the opening days of the tournament.




Amid this calm, let's go back to the year 1990, when the 'original' bad boy of tennis, John McEnroe, was sent off the court midway through his fourth-round match on this day — January 21.

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McEnroe became the first player in the Open Era to be disqualified from a Grand Slam match for ‘triple’ court violations.

It was a comparatively new rule, and even McEnroe was reportedly unaware of its implementation at the time. However, his on-court antics were recorded, and when he breached the code of conduct for the third time, the chair umpire pronounced the dreaded words: “Default, Mr McEnroe.”

For Indian fans, McEnroe was the childhood idol of none other than cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, with a young Sachin emulating McEnroe’s style — wearing headbands and growing his hair long — hoping to be called “Mac” by friends.

Who is John McEnroe?

McEnroe was a former world No. 1 American tennis player, well known for his confrontational on-court behaviour. He was equally successful in singles and doubles and remains one of the very few players to hold the No. 1 ranking in both disciplines simultaneously.

The Tennis Hall of Famer won seven singles Grand Slam titles — four US Opens and three Wimbledons — apart from nine doubles titles (five Wimbledon and four US Open). He also won one mixed doubles Slam after claiming the French Open in 1977.

In fact, he won an Open Era record 155 titles in his career, making him one of the most successful players in tennis history.

However, his on-court behaviour often landed him on the wrong side of match officials and tennis authorities.

One such incident occurred on this day, 36 years ago, on January 21, 1990.

How the 'OG of bad boys' McEnroe landed on an unwanted list

McEnroe was already a seven-time major champion when he entered the 1990 Australian Open as the fourth seed, searching for his first title in Melbourne.

He entered the January 21 match — a fourth-round clash against Swede Mikael Pernfors — after breezing past his first three opponents without dropping a set. But the match did not go as smoothly as the American legend had anticipated.

As the contest grew tougher, McEnroe’s confrontational behaviour began to surface in front of the crowd. Swearing and racquet-throwing became frequent occurrences, and he soon started accumulating code violations.

McEnroe was, in fact, leading two sets to one when he was defaulted from the match and the tournament after his third code violation. The decision left both the legend and the Australian Open in shock.

A new code violation rule had been implemented from the year’s first Slam in Melbourne, reducing the threshold to three violations from the earlier limit of four.

The star did not take the decision lightly and left the court with further confrontational behaviour, but by then he had already opened the account of one of the most infamous moments in tennis history.

WATCH: How McEnroe was disqualified
McEnroe thus became the first player to be defaulted from a Grand Slam event since Willie Alvarez at the 1963 French Open, who was expelled after arguing with an umpire.

Djokovic - Last big defaulter

Another legend, Novak Djokovic, was the last big name to be defaulted for a code violation in a Grand Slam match.

In the 2020 US Open, Djokovic was trailing in the first set of his fourth-round match against Pablo Carreno Busta when he hit a ball out of frustration that struck a line judge’s throat.

Officials were forced to follow the rules and disqualified Djokovic from the match and the tournament. The Serb lost all ranking points from the event and was fined the prize money he would have earned at the US Open.


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