The Art of Breaking Tennis Rackets

When a player gets frustrated about his or her playing, they tend to break their rackets in order to relieve their anger. Since tennis is a game of mistakes and mental strength, negative emotions don’t help the players win points. Therefore, these players need to clear their mind of these negative emotions. In this case, by breaking their racket and playing with a new, “better” racket.

Below is a compilation of players breaking their rackets to give you an idea of what it looks like.

On April 16, 2019, Novak Djokovic (currently ranked #1 in the world) played Philipp Kohlschreiber (ranked 40 in the world) at Monte Carlos Masters. The two were in their second set; Djokovic had won the first set, 6-3. Losing 2-3, Djokovic hit an approach shot and crossed over to the left side of the net to volley a ball that was high on his backhand side. This type of volley is a low percentage shot but without any other options, Djokovic went to take the volley and missed the sideline by a few inches. As soon as the point ended, Djokovic smashes his racket on the ground. After, he played much better, but he ended up losing the set. In the next set, he was able to bring his act together and finish out the match with a win.

So what’s the problem? If breaking your racket helps to maintain a strong mindset and boost your positive emotions, why are you talking about it, Chanel? Well, something called ‘Racket Abuse’ is enforced in the world of tennis. Chair umpires use this rule to give a warning to a point penalty to the player. When it is the player’s first violation, the umpire will give him or her a warning, however, if they violate any rule after that, they will receive a point penalty, which gives a point to the other player. One point may seem insignificance but sometimes, it decides whether a player wins or loses.

Last year, during the 2018 US Open Finals, Serena Williams played Naomi Osaka. During the second set at 1-0 15-40, the umpire, Carlos Ramos, known for his strict umpiring, called Serena out for receiving coaching from her coach. Patrick Mouratoglou, Williams’s coach, was making gestures for Serena to move aka coaching. Ramos gave Williams a warning for her first violation. She quickly denied the coaching as she would "rather lose" than cheat. After a couple games at 2-3 after losing a game, out of frustration, Serena broke her racket. That would be her second violation. The umpire gave Serena a point penalty, which would mean they start the game with Osaka up 15-0. People thought the advantage wasn't fair as Serena already declined the umpire's accusation. She started to yell at the umpire, saying that he should apologize to her for accusing her of cheating. For yelling at the chair umpire, Ramos gives Serena a game penalty. With a game and point advantage, Naomi Osaka won her first grand slam tournament. Obviously, the fans were not happy. Most argued that the rule against breaking rackets wasn't fair and that most players did it anyway. It didn't make sense to keep this rule. 

This brings us back to the original point about how breaking rackets helps control emotions. Personally, I've broken my racket once before. Not in a game but during practice. I was practicing serves but none of them would go over. Out of frustration, I slammed my racket on the ground with a loud scream. It doesn't make sense to just hear it but from first-hand experience, I can say it does provide some counseling. I proceeded to make about 8 serves in a row. Now, I don't have a sponsor nor the money to continuously break rackets whenever I need an output for my anger like Kyrgios over here:

But I agree with others that breaking rackets should not be illegal in the game of tennis. Tennis is a very mentally challenging sport because you play alone with no teammates supporting you (unless you play doubles but that's a different story for a different time 😄). Without players easing tension like breaking a racket, "some good tennis" would therefore be impossible.

Fun facts!

• The only top-ranking player to have never broken a single racket in his tennis career is Rafael Nadal.
• Marat Safin, a retired Russian tennis player, once broke 48 rackets in one match.
• He also holds the record for most rackets broken in a career with 1055 rackets.