Playing with passion Jimmy Connors (facing page) and John McEnroe, pictured arguing with an umpire at Wimbledon, were controversial characters who were never afraid to show their emotions
here in the final. Because of you guys, I was fighting like hell.” Being the pantomime villain is a thankless task. Yet even the villains get their chance to shine. The public has brought McEnroe in from the cold and he is now one of the most respected TV pundits. Agassi, once he recommitted himself to working hard in his late twenties, turned into the Zen master that Barbra Streisand had dubbed him so many years before. Nadal, ever the good guy, was at pains to point out that Medvedev’s day would come too. “I really believe that he has a great future,” he said. “He’s going to feel the love of the crowd in the future, because he deserves it.” And at least everyone knows who Daniil Medvedev is these days. If the media ignored him in the past, they don’t now. Better still: with Djokovic back on court there is now someone else to boo for a change.
He, too, riled the US Open crowds, back in 2019. Struggling in the third round, he argued with the umpire (cue whistles from the stands), chided the ballboys (cue the booing to go with the whistles) and then slyly flipped them the finger as he went back to his chair (cue howls from the cheap seats). When he finally won, he threw down the gauntlet. “I won because of you,” he told the crowd, sarcastically. “The more you do this, the more I will win for you guys.” That was it: he was public enemy No 1. Nevertheless, four rounds later, after narrowly losing to Nadal in the final, Medvedev had the crowd in the palm of his hand. He had put up a tremendous fight from two sets down and had almost beaten the great Nadal but, in the end, he had had the decency to lose. The crowd loved him for it. “I know earlier in the tournament I said something in a bad way,” he said, “But now, in a good way, it’s because of your energy, guys, I was
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