Wimbledon is known for rain stopping play, strawberries and cream, and the occasional on-court tantrum. But players at this year’s British Grand Slam have racked up some of the largest fines since tournament records began — and there’s still about a week left to play.
This week, Australia’s Bernard Tomic was fined $15,000, the second highest recorded financial penalty in Wimbledon’s history, for “unsportsmanlike conduct,” according to Australia’s ABC news. (The largest, $20,000 was doled out to Italy’s Fabio Fognini in 2014.)
Tomic’s fine was imposed after the 59th seed — who limped off court at the end of his straight sets loss to Germany’s Mischa Zverev — admitted he had faked a back injury. He also said that he’d been bored during the match.
“You know I wasn’t mentally and physically there, with my mental state to perform and I don’t know why,” he told reporters soon after. “But I felt a little bit bored out there to be completely honest with you.”
Russian Daniil Medvedev has also been hit with three separate fines, totaling $14,500 The Guardian reports. He racked up two of them for insulting Portuguese empire Mariana Alvez, and a third for tossing coins at her chair.
Petulant outbursts are not always detrimental to tennis players’ legacies. Seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe racked up more than ten fines over the course of his storied career. Outbursts included calling a Czech opponent a “communist bastard” and a notorious tantrum in which he screamed “You cannot be serious” at a Wimbledon umpire he also called “the pits of the world.”
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