03 The Default | SNAP
5/3/202644 min
As John McEnroe is defaulted from a Grand Slam match for the first time, bewilderment gives way to outrage as the fallout begins. Officials retreat, journalists swarm, and fractures begin to appear in the sport itself. How will McEnroe react and how will the tennis world respond?
Featuring (alphabetically): Gerry Armstrong, Peter Bellinger, Pat Cash, Jim Courier, Tim Henman, Di Larkin, John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Paul McNamee, Mark Petchey, Barbara Schett, Sam Smith, and Todd Woodbridge.
Writer and editor: Lochlainn Harte
Narrator and producer: Jon Hoevenaars
Supervising producer: Adrian Houghton
Executive producer: Xavier Muhlebach
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First 90 secondsJon Hoevenaars0:01
[dramatic music] There are moments in sport that last less than a few seconds, but occupy the collective imagination for decades. They're usually moments of extraordinary beauty, a goal, a leap, the perfect shot, the kind of thing you watch back and feel it again, the same pure shock of pleasure. But sometimes they're the other kind.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:28
Well, it just hovers over that lines lady.
Jon Hoevenaars0:31
The moment where something goes irretrievably wrong.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:34
Code violation, unsportsmanlike conduct, warning, Mr. McEnroe.
Jon Hoevenaars0:37
Where a career bends on its axis.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:40
Well, that's fair. It was, uh, very intimidating of McEnroe.
Jon Hoevenaars0:44
Where everyone in the stadium goes very still all at once because they understand that what they're watching is history in the making.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:53
[crowd cheering] Advantage Connors.
Jon Hoevenaars0:57
And not the comfortable kind.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:58
Code violation, racket abuse, point penalty, Mr. McEnroe.
Jon Hoevenaars1:01
[crowd cheering] This is one of those moments.
John McEnroe· Guest1:04
The question is whether or not I hit, you know, whether I'm gonna continue playing with it, if I can't play with the racket, right?
Speaker 2· Soundbite1:09
Yeah.
John McEnroe· Guest1:10
This is a little crack.
Speaker 2· Soundbite1:11
Is that- Does that mean there's abuse?
Jon Hoevenaars1:12
John McEnroe walking back from Ken Farrar, carrying a point penalty he considers unjust, believing he has one more step before anything serious happens. Already composing, no doubt, somewhere in the back of his mind,