-
1/11
These are the clean men in tennis: Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. But: It used to be very different …
—-
2/11
Alexander Zverev and Sophia Thomalla are considered a dream couple. How boorish is the German Olympic tennis champion?
—-
10/11
John McEnroe is said to have used anti-inflammatory steroids.
—-
11/11
Jennifer Capriati – but also Maria Sharapova – were convicted of doping.
—-
—-
Nick Kyrgios is considered a flail on the tennis scene. The Australian provokes, sometimes lets his listlessness run free. Alexander Zverev is considered controversial, how boorish he really is, only insiders know – the public can only get an idea of his relationship boxes with model girls, from which unconfirmed allegations of abuse and an illegitimate child have emerged. At the moment he forms a so-called German dream couple with the model and it girl Sophia Thomalla.
–
video-wrapper video-wrapper--inline">Tennis star and presenter: Are you Germany’s new dream couple?(00:46)
—
In contrast, the three current superstars on the scene are orphans. Model Swiss Roger Federer anyway, as does the Spanish honorary citizen Rafael Nadal – both are free from scandals. Only Novak Djokovic is sometimes offensive by celebrating fun tournaments during pandemic times or by endangering line judges with his freaking out on the field.
–
video-wrapper video-wrapper--inline">Scandal at the US Open: Here Djokovic hits the linesman full in the neck!(01:14)
—
But that’s it with the wickedness of today’s elite tennis. Apart from betting scandals, which some tennis nobodies and doubles players get involved in in their struggle for financial survival, and doping traps in drugs that naive players sometimes step into. Outwardly, the stars of white sport are wearing their white vests as best they can. The Tennis Integrity Unit (TUI) and the World Doping Agency (WADA) are omnipresent. And at times when the enemy lurks everywhere with cell phone cameras and the shitstorm on social media can kill anyone, revolutionaries don’t have much room for nonsense anyway.
–
Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll
Quite the opposite of before. If we had known what John McEnroe, Pat Cash, Vitas Gerulaitis, Yannick Noah and even the cool Swedes Björn Borg or Mats Wilander did in their prime – the moral police would have had their hands full. Wild parties, sex escapades and drug excesses were the order of the day for the best of the best – even during the tournament days of Wimbledon or the US Open, mind you! Partly in public in hotels or on the streets of London or Manhattan.
–
It’s no secret, the stars of the time processed their sins in abundance in biographies or interviews. In the late 1970s, for example, Frenchman Noah claimed that recreational drugs were common on tour. He himself smoked marijuana immediately before his matches. But the now 61-year-old French Open winner in 1983 – to this day the last Grand Slam winner of the proud “Grand Nation” – turned out to be an opponent of alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine (also known as speed). Compared to certain buddies on the tour, he was harmless.
–
The downward spiral began with marijuana for the Australian Pat Cash (56). When he made his debut at Wimbledon at the age of 17, he hid a joint in his bed. “I kept it under my pillow and kissed it every night. That calmed me down, ”he admitted more than twenty years later in his autobiography“ Uncovered ”.
–
Depression and suicidal thoughts
When he achieved his best ranking as world number 6 at the age of 19, Cash “Down Under” was a national hero. But the fear of the fall nearly killed him. “Siegen was a bit like heroin – it became a drug without which I became depressed.” So much so that he wanted to kill himself. “Because after defeat I had the feeling that nobody loved me anymore,” said Cash.
–
Despite being addicted to marijuana, Cash won Wimbledon at the age of 22 in 1987. It only got really bad when the tennis rock star with the legendary black and white checkered headband didn’t stop there. He suffered from injuries, had to undergo surgery on his intervertebral disc and had to take a longer break from tennis. Instead, he chased through the nightlife at parties, met his first wife, the Norwegian model Anne-Britt Kristiansen, and resorted to cocaine and other hard drugs.
–
Cash became a father of two, the family broke up, his private problems left him with the rest – in alcohol and cocaine excesses he beat hotel rooms in the frenzy of the depression. “It all helped me forget my pain and problems for at least one night,” recalls Cash. “I didn’t like what was happening to me, but I couldn’t stop it.” Only the birth of the twins, which he had with his second wife Emily Bendit, is the reason that he is not dead today. After an unsuccessful comeback, the Cash couple went to a rehab clinic.
–
McEnroe and Borg in the swamp
The fallen star was just scratching the corner. Not so the man Cash admiringly called “The Man”, Vitas Gerulaitis. The American, Australian Open winner 1977, was the party and drug king of the scene par excellence. Before he allegedly died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a defective air conditioning system in a friend’s house in 1994 under mysterious circumstances, he also cast a spell over John McEnroe, 62.
–
In his biography “You Can’t Be This Serious”, “Big Mac” talks at length about his relationship with marijuana and cocaine. He never took the latter during tournaments. “Sleepless nights and lazy days don’t contribute to a tennis career,” says McEnroe. In the relentless war of divorce with US actress Tatum O’Neill, however, it was found in court that he had been taking anti-inflammatory steroids.
–
video-wrapper video-wrapper--inline">«You cannot be serious»: This is where John McEnroe freaks out at Wimbledon(00:31)
—
The seven-time Grand Slam winner always denied that he had abused the painkillers for sporting success, but today warns of naivety, which also made him stand out. “For six years I didn’t know I was getting legal steroids that were used on horses and that were too strong even for them.”
–
McEnroe’s first rival Björn Borg (65) was apparently no better. Accused of taking illegal drugs, the Swede won a defamation lawsuit in the early 1990s that arose as a result of a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend Yannick Björling over their son. However, a year after the trial, the eleven-time major champion attempted to get back on the tour but lost 12 of 12 matches before finally giving up. In 1992 he admitted that he tried various drugs in the 80s – without ever being addicted. In the book of his ex-wife Loredana Berte it sounds different: According to the Italian, Borg freely strolled through the streets of Milan and asked passers-by for coke. “He always preferred cocaine to me.”
–
Wilander and other doping offenders
What never came to light at Borg during his career was the case with his Swedish successor, Mats Wilander. The now 57-year-old was the first professional in 1995 to go down in history as a tennis doping offender because of cocaine consumption. Because he claimed to have accidentally taken the drug – well after the time in which he had won seven Grand Slam titles – Wilander was sentenced to a three-month ban.
–
The former world number 1 Andre Agassi (51) got off lightly. At the bottom of his career in 1997, he tested positive and not punished. But when, years later, in his biography “Frankly” (German: “Geradeheraus”) he cleared the table with his past, the eight-time Grand Slam champ explained how he told the ATP officials about his “crystal meth” consumption, “ who made me a zombie », had successfully lied.
–
As the doping examples of Jennifer Capriati and Maria Sharapova, who had to end their careers, or the bans of Petr Korda (1998, 1 year), Martina HIngis (2008, 2 years), or Dan Evans (2017, 1 year) show , it is no longer so easy to slip through the network of doping watchdogs today. But it will be exciting to see what wickedness future autobiographies of today’s tennis stars will reveal to us one day.
–
–
Related posts:
Basketball Results: Lithuania and Spain 2 CompetitionsPaysandu Signs Rising Star Ruan Ribeiro and Veteran Striker Jean Dias for 2024 SeasonBillionaire Prajogo Pangestu Faces $4 Billion Loss and Title as Indonesia's Richest Person in Jeopar...Tarragona is consecrated as the capital of values and genuine football at the start of a new editi...Related
