Sometimes a match will not go as a player imagined which can lead to great frustration and anger. Occasionally, this frustration and anger results in a player smashing his or her racquet. Smashing a racquet may even allow a player to get rid of their anger and calm down so that he or she can once again focus on the match. On the other hand, there have been occasions where players have acted so inappropriately that they have been disqualified. Let’s focus on a group of players who are known to smash their racquets our of frustration and anger.
Marat Safin is the Record Holder
Marat Safin, from Russia, played on the ATP tour from 1997 to 2009. He was ranked the #1 player in the world in 2000. He won 15 titles, including two Gran Slam victories. He won the 2000 U.S. Open and the 2005 Australian Open. He is also the first Russian player to enter the tennis hall of fame. Marat was also known to lose his temper and smash racquets.
There is no official data on which player has broken the most rackets during his career, but without any doubt it is Marat Safin. Head, who sponsored Safin, claims that Safin destroyed 1,055 racquets during his career.
Interestingly, Safin was the idol of Novak Djokovic, the greatest player of all time. Djokovic once made an interesting statement about Marat’s racquet breaking.
“He was one of my idols and I remember that when I sparred with him for the first time, I changed three shirts because I was so nervous. He was always a strong personality, a versatile player, fearless on the court. When he won Grand Slams, he showed fantastic games. Apart from that game, his racquet breaking, screaming, grunting… I think the fans loved him for that.” said Novak Djokovic.
Novak Djokovic also Breaks a Lot of Racquets
While no where close to Safin’s record, Novak Djokovic is also known to smash his racquet in frustration. So far during his career, he has broken 54 racquets, making him one of the leading racquet smashers of all time. The last time Djokovic smashed his racquet was against Carlos Alcaraz in the 2023 Wimbledon final which saw the young Spanish player defeat Djokovic. For this particular outburst, Djokovic was fined 8,000 euros for breaking his racquet.
Nadal Broke Only One Racquet in his Career!
We are all hopeful that Rafael Nadal will return to the court at the 2024 Australian Open. Unlike Djokovic and Safin, Nadal has only smashed one racquet during his entire career. This happened after being defeated in a match against Gaston Gaudio in the quarter-finals of the ATP tournament in Buenos Aires in 2005. Gaudio, from Argentina, stated that after entering the dressing room he saw that Nadal had broken as many as seven rackets.
“He broke all the rackets. Seven pieces. I thought, ‘What’s going on with this guy? Is he crazy?’. He did not lose to a weaker player but to the champion of Roland Garros. But Rafa understood that defeat as a failure that he had a hard time overcoming.”
Nadal denied Gaudio’s claims and stated that he only broke one racquet.
“To be honest, I only broke one racquet,” Nadal said with a laugh and continued: “Gaudio is lying, that’s for sure. I remember finishing that match and not being mad. In that case, the other player played better than me. I’ve never broken a racquet on the court because you have a lot of pressure there. Also, I never put seven rackets in my bag, maximum six,” said Nadal.
That incident may turn out to be the only time that Nadal breaks a racquet in his entire career.
McEnroe is the Original Racquet Smasher
John McEnroe was probably second to Safin as the player with the most broken racquets in his career. McEnroe often liked to vent his anger on the court by smashing his racquet, and he was the original bad boy of tennis. Still, during his career, he “only” broke 78 racquets!
Credit: Action Images
Another great American player, Andy Roddick, was also know for breaking racquets, as was Goran Ivanisevic, Novak Djokovic’s current coach.
FUN FACT: Goran Ivanisevic, the winner of the 2001 Wimbledon 2001, made tennis history a year earlier because he broke all the racquets he brought to a Samsung Open match against Hyung-Taik Lee. He smashed all three of his racquets and, since he no more racquets to play with, he was forced to forfeit the match to the Korean player.
In contrast to Goran Ivanisevic is Boris Becker, another tennis legend who was also Djokovic’s coach at one time. Becker was much calmer and it was said that he took great care of his sports equipment, so he was able to play with one racquet for more than a year. Roger Federer was also known as a player with good control over his emotions, as he only broke eleven racquets throughout his career.
Other famous racquet smashing incidents include the 2012 Australian Open when Marcos Baghdatis broke four racquets during one break in his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka.
While mostly players smash their racquets on the ground, Mikhail Youzhny smashed his racquet on his head in Miami 2008 resulting in him bleeding from his forehead.
Nick Kyrgios, Alexander Bublik and Benoit Paire are all known as great entertainers on the court, but also as players who do not hesitate to break their racquets when they get frustrated.
Female tennis players are also known to break racquets, and Serena Williams stood out for breaking 72 rackets during her career. The racquet she smashed during the 2018 U.S. Open final against Naomi Osaka was later sold at auction for nearly $21,000.
