Professional sport is no cakewalk. Tempers rise with the temperature and adrenaline starts flowing so it is no surprise that there are times when the players let the situation get the better of them and lose their temper. Most of the times it’s restricted to racquet breaking or shouting aimed at themselves or their box but sometimes it escalates into a fight against the opponent. Moving on to the top tennis confrontations then,

11. Kyrgios vs Johnson – 2017 Shanghai Open

Australian youngster Nick Kyrgios has earned a reputation for being a ‘bad boy’. Back in 2016, he was handed an 8-week ban for not trying hard enough. Fast-forward to 2017, and he was involved in a bizarre incident with Steve Johnson. Deep into the first set, he began to mouth off on how unfair things were. Then he began to threaten to quit the match. As soon as he lost the first set, to the amazement and confusion of everyone, he forfeit the match and Johnson advanced by default. Also, Kyrgios had one of his signature tennis confrontations, this time with the chair umpire.

10. Nadal vs Fognini – 2015 Hamburg final

Fognini is one player who has the ability to get under the skin of his opponent. He was one of the few players who made Rafa lose his cool which is a rarity. Here’s a translation of the dialogue picked up from Youtube. Apparently it was about Rafa taking too much time between points

Fognini: what do you want?

Nadal: you’re always complaining about the time

Fognini: because you do the same thing all the time, don’t break my balls.

Nadal: good bye, good bye