Top 5 Tennis Villains

We've been riding high on the coattails of unprecedented traffic here based on the previous post about Sampras' new racket, but it's time to show thesmallspot some love. Let's ramp it up in anticipation of the Australian Open, shall we?

Early results: Murray looks good notching wins over Federer and Nadal, Roddick makes it to the final of his first tournament working with Stefanki, and Djokovic is scrambling to get extra matches after losing early. Personalities help liven up rivalries, and tennis likes to trump up its Good Guys. That's fine, but we only have people to root for. Let's take a different tack and identify some you can root against:

#1
Name: Andy Roddick
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: Surprise! America's golden boy is Tennis' #1 Villain. A lot of Andy's bad behavior gets glossed over by the US media, but Roddick doesn't enjoy the same treatment in the rest of the world. Roddick directs his venom at chair umpires, and in last year's Australian Open had this to say to the unfortunate soul in the chair: "shut up", "have a bit of class", "[Your ears are] connected to your head, use them", "I'm going to speak very slowly to you, so you can understand me" and "Kids, stay in school or you'll end up being an umpire". Yowch.

#2
Name: Lleyton Hewitt
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: Hewitt's in-your-face attitude and fist pumps are well documented, and he's turned many of his coworkers against him by cheering their errors. One of his most notorious incidents came in 2001 at the US Open, in a 4th round match against James Blake. After being called for multiple foot faults, Hewitt requested that the line judge be removed from the match, yelling at the chair umpire, "Look at him. Look at him and you tell me what the similarity is. Just get him off the court." Blake (and many others) interpreted these remarks as racially motivated, but James ultimately took the high road and gave Hewitt the benefit of the doubt. Marriage and children have mellowed the fiery Aussie, but watching him (incorrectly) dispute a call at the Hopman Cup reminded us of his ugly side.

#3
Name: Nicolas Kiefer
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: This is another Hopman Cup revival. Kiefer's fallen off the map a bit these days, but seeing his surly disposition and general disdain for the ballkids brought back a flood of memories. I have an extreme dislike for players who treat the ballkids poorly. Bad boy highlight: a 2006 Australian Open match (what is it with players behaving badly Down Under?) against Sebastien Grosjean. A rally ended with both players up at net for a volley exchange. Kiefer hit a soft reply and as Grosjean prepared to volley to the open court, Kiefer tossed his racket toward the net. Distracted, Grosjean volleyed wide and appealed to the chair umpire, claiming hindrance. Kiefer quickly picked up his racket and wagged his finger "no", and to my utter amazement, got away with this completely bush-league behavior.

#4
Name: Robin Soderling
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: Seriously, is this not the face of Pure Evil? Add Soderling to the Doesn't-Play-Nicely-With-Ballkids group. His 2007 Wimbledon matchup with Nadal also got ugly. Frustrated with Nadal's deliberate pace, Soderling engaged in gamesmanship, imitating Nadal's wedgie pick and slowing down the pace of the game himself. After losing in 5 tight sets, he took his feud public with comments to the press, endearing himself to no one.

#5
Name: Novak Djokovic
How he earned his Bad Boy Stripes: This is a rough call as Djokovic has largely cleaned up his act. Early in his career Djokovic was known for taking dubious injury timeouts, trash talking opponents through the press, and enabling his ridiculous parents to attend tennis matches. Novak showed he hasn't lost his touch at the 2008 US Open, turning the crowd against him by very publicly taking exception to comments Roddick had made about him in the press. As boos rained down, an unrepentant Djokovic stalked off to the locker room.

Disagree? Think I left someone out? Sound off below!