• Australian Open

Kim Sears' f-word rant enters tennis outburst hall of shame

ESPN staff
January 31, 2015
Andy Murray's fiancée Kim Sears was a mixture of emotions throughout his Australian Open semi-final © Getty Images
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After being caught by television cameras directing some choice language toward Tomas Berdych's team as she watched her fiancée Andy Murray make it through to his fourth Australian Open final, hopefully Kim Sears will be a little bit calmer on Sunday.

However, Kim can rest assured that she is in good company when it comes to tennis families and friends behaving badly.

Here, ESPN presents the game's limelight snatchers hall of shame:

Mirka Federer

Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer helped Switzerland win the Davis Cup © Getty Images
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Roger Federer's wife caused controversy at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in 2014 when television cameras appeared to catch her calling Stan Wawrinka a "crybaby" for complaining that she was yelling too loudly in-between points.

It was bad enough that the two players were in the middle of a highly-charged semi-final at London's O2 Arena.

But they were also due to play alongside each other for Switzerland the following week in the Davis Cup final - one of the few trophies that had eluded 17-time grand slam winner Federer in his illustrious career.

Wawrinka was visibly upset by the remark, and squandered four match points as he lost in three sets to Federer, who, to make matters worse, had to pull out of the final with a back injury.

All's well that ends well, however, as both men downplayed the incident following the match and went on to help Switzerland beat France.

Jeff Tarango was not happy after a call went against him at Wimbledon in 1995 © Getty Images
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The wife who slapped the umpire

In the 1995 Wimbledon Championships, firebrand Californian Jeff Tarango - who was known to have a temper - became upset when a serve he thought was an ace during his match against Alexander Mronz was called out.

He was heckled by the crowd, whom he told to shut up, with umpire Bruno Rebeuh issuing a code violation.

Tarango flew into a rage and stormed off, defaulting the match, saying: "You are the most corrupt official. I'm not playing any more."

Rebeuh, making his way back to the changing room, then encountered Tarango's wife Benedicte, who gave him a slap.

Her defence? "If Jeff had done it, he would have been put out of tennis," she said.

Fair enough.

Redfoo and Victoria Azarenka at the ESPY Awards in July 2013 © Getty Images
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Redfoo(l)

After beating Serena Williams in the final of the Qatar Open in 2013, Victoria Azarenka's then-boyfriend, the musical artist Redfoo of LMFAO, dedicated his song I'll Award You With My Body to his girlfriend. The $426,000 winners' check was probably enough.

Redfoo also sent Vika an embarrassing 'Harlem Shake' Valentines Day message on YouTube during the tournament, featuring a giant, neon pink teddy bear head.

If that wasn't enough, he was also keen on gatecrashing Azarenka's press conferences, doing so at the 2012 US Open ahead of her quarter-final as well as when she won the 2013 Australian Open, commenting, "Yeah, we bring out the bottles," as he plugged his new single.

Andy Murray saw off Feliciano Lopez at Wimbledon in 2011 © Getty Images
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Judy Murray

Poor old Andy gets another mention here. At Wimbledon in 2011, he was forced to tell his mum off for swooning over his friend and fellow professional Feliciano Lopez, the Spaniard she had dubbed 'Deliciano' on Twitter.

"I think it's about time she stopped that nonsense. It's making me throw up. It's disgusting," Murray joked at a press conference.

"It's quite funny because she'd been writing about it on Twitter like all the time. And I was practising with him before the tournament and my mum was on the side.

"When we were warming up, I shouted across the net, 'Feli, if we sit down for a drink, if you could take a picture with my mum, because she thinks you're beautiful'.

"She went bright red. [She said] 'I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it'. Refused to take the picture. It was quite funny. Not like her."

What made matters worse for Judy was that she had to watch as Andy saw off Lopez for a place in the semi-finals.

But at least they're nowhere near as bad as...

To be fair to the above, their antics seem insignificant when it comes to some of tennis' infamous 'bad dads'. There is Australian Bernard Tomic's father and coach, John Tomic, who had his ATP Tour credentials revoked after being convicted in a Spanish court of assaulting his son's hitting partner, French coach Thomas Drouet, when he headbutted him in May 2013.

Then there was Damir Dokic, an ex-wrestler from Serbia and father of Jelena Dokic who was thrown out of a pre-Wimbledon tournament in Birmingham in 1999 for calling members of the tennis club "Nazis who supported the bombing of Yugoslavia".

He was also ejected from the US Open following an argument over the price of salmon in the players' restaurant, as well as smashing a journalist's telephone at Wimbledon and claiming the Australian Open draw was rigged to put his daughter at a disadvantage.

Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Jelena wisely cut her ties with him, switching nationality to Australia (a move which Damir reacted to by threatening to drop a nuclear warhead on Australia).

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