Decades after McEnroe’s Wimbledon f-bombs, sport still has a behaviour problem

John McEnroe berates the umpire while playing Stefan Edberg at the Wimbledon Championships in 1991. Photograph: Bob Martin/Getty Images

A friend’s father holds a Wimbledon record that will surely never be broken: he was the target of the greatest number of f-bombs from John McEnroe on Centre Court. His crime? Calling a Stefan Edberg ace, when it missed the line by a hair’s breadth. In the 1991 quarter-finals. When McEnroe was two sets and a break down. And when his temper was already somewhere between boiling point and nuclear fissure.

You can guess the rest. “You have got to be kidding me,” McEnroe screamed, wrongly indicating the serve was a foot wide. Then came the usual glares and stares, tuts and head shakes. Before, two points later, he completely lost it. “You effing son of an effing bitch. I’m going to effing do you and, if you report me, I’ll effing do you again.”