It takes two to Tarango on Court 13

FROM THE ARCHIVE WIMBLEDON JULY 3rd, 1995Tennis seems very prim and proper nowadays; it certainly wasn't back in the second week of Wimbledon in 1995, as GERRY THORNLEYreported on an extraordinary incident

YOU’VE SEEN the outburst, you’ve seen the press conference, you’ve seen Benedicte stand by her man and you’ve been Tangoed. Now comes the movie? With a plot, subplots, accusations of corruption and fiendish favouritism, life in the tennis jet set, a voluble and volatile leading man and a volcanic, glamorous leading lady, it’s worthy of one.

A crazy, crazy day. “People’s Saturday” they call it, because they allow the public who queue overnight for 2,000 seats to the Centre Court. Whether this proves the Tory upper-middle class set who inhabit Centre Court for the remainder of the fortnight are not real people is a moot point.

But, on what might be termed a blissfully cool Irish summer’s day, the atmosphere generated by Joe Public seemed to galvanise those on court far more than the record-breaking temperatures of the preceding days.

All around people were losing their heads. Jeff Tarango and his fiery wife, most of all; but there was also Boris Becker and his wife, Barbara Feltus, having a high-volume row 45 minutes after his match, during which she appeared to have fallen asleep. To have been living next door to the Tarangos or Beckers on Saturday night must have been interesting.

The petulant Wayne Ferreira also incurred a code violation warning for racquet abuse during his defeat of Mark Woodforde, who might have been defaulted for taking more than the stipulated three minutes and afterwards queried whether Ferreira should be punished for his bad tempered, on-court antics.

That Andre Agassi’s astonishing reflexes and rubber wrists later defied an inspired David Wheaton in the third set of their compelling duel, thereby taking the actual tennis to unprecedented heights, went largely undetected.

But if the 26-year-old Tarango, aka Mango, has tangoed anybody it’s himself. Summoned for a 4pm meeting with Alan Mills yesterday, Tarango beforehand briefly left his besieged hotel merely to confirm that his lawyer had advised him not to say anything. If ever there was a case of locking the stable door after the horse had bolted, this was surely it.

More tautly strung than his racquet, he had stormed off court after the umpire, Bruno Rabeuh, had rightly ordered a let when the line judge had corrected himself for calling a Tarango first serve out. Tarango departed with the words “You’re the most corrupt official in the game” echoing around a stunned Court 13. Rabeuh had also decreed, if a little harshly, that the player’s earlier “shut up” to the Centre Court crowd was an audible obscenity.

Compounding that outburst, Tarango unwisely granted a press conference within half an hour. The bejewelled Benedicte, jet black hair tied back and layers of white silk and cotton hanging loosely on her slim, bronzed frame, strode in on our side of the room, unbeknownst to most of us. The Tarangos (whose wedded bliss reaches its first anniversary tomorrow) were in a state of high dudgeon and what followed was high farce.

Tarango had not been aware that Benedicte had been the mystery woman who had slapped Rabeuh in the face, but she interrupted proceedings to confirm as much. “I jus’ try to slap heem wence, jus to tell heem that eez eneuf, because Jeff cannot do eet. If Jeff slap heem, he’s out of the tennis tour, so I do eet, because I think I should do eet, somebody should defend him at some point.”

“But I’m glad you did that, without me telling you beforehand,” said Tarango approvingly, though he did draw in the reins with a whoaaa Benedicte soon after. “No more. No more,” he whispered to her behind his hand.

The origin of their irrational behaviour is believed to date from October 1993. Tarango alleged: “Two people that I was acquainted with at the time came to me and told me that Mr Rabeuh, after having drinks at the courts, told them that he was friends with a few players, very good friends, after he gave them matches.”

Tarango went so far as to allege what Rabeuh’s supposed motives might be for this unsubstantiated claim. “To fain friendship I, think the guy is a real loser.” This hearsay came, reputedly, “from two women which he was trying to pick up at a party. He’s a real class person we’re talking about”.

Tarango even named one of the alleged beneficiaries of Rabeuh’s supposed largesse, the Swiss Olympic champion Marc Rosset. Tarango claims he can “substantiate under oath” these astonishing accusations, unprecedented in the game, and that he would have “no problem” in procuring affidavits from the unnamed women.

Methinks he had better have no problem. Otherwise Monsieur Rabeuh – who has umpired the last four French Open men’s singles finals and was described by tournament referee Alan Mills as “one of the finest chair umpires in the world, with a wealth of experience” – can start planning his retirement. Perhaps Tarango is unaware that the libel laws are a mite stricter in England than in his native America.

It was all compulsive viewing, the buzz generated around the press centre unlike anything since John McEnroe’s tautly-strung, combustible press conferences of the mid-1980s.

Tarango did not rant or rave, but it was a rambling performance undermined by distinct hints of paranoia and a persecution complex. “I don’t feel that I should be pushed around in my whole life and let people take advantage of me. I just felt that I was backed into a corner and that I had really no recourse for defending myself,” he said.

At another stage, he said: “I’m getting fined irregularly for quite a while now. I’m getting fined the maximum for things that people are getting fined the minimum for, and the fine situation is hitting a nerve.

“For people to always say that Jeff is a psycho, that Jeff is a hot head, that Jeff is mean . . . and I’m not you know. I’m a very rational person. I’d definitely have probably a little Latin in me, but I don’t – I’m an intellectual person who does not fly off the cuff without reason.”

This is not substantiated by his disciplinary record. Amongst a string of fines for code violations the length of your arm, most of them incurred for audible obscenities, there are several of $400, which is well below the maximum, and one fine of $1,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct in Wellington last year, was rescinded on appeal.

Furthermore, his claim earlier in the week that Tim Henman’s accidental striking of a ball girl “could have killed her” and would have resulted in a life ban for Tarango is not supported by a similar incident involving him. In Key Biscayne last year, Tarango hit a ball in anger which bounced up and struck a ball girl in the face. He was fined $750 for an audible obscenity and $1,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Mills confirmed on Saturday that Tarango’s fine would be in five figures this time, and nor will it end there. But it is unlikely that the ATP or the Wimbledon authorities will want this episode to attract any more publicity this week, so Tarango is set to incur heavier punishment at a future date.

“There are so many ramifications from that, that that is going to take some time,” said the normally unflappable Mills.

Tarango had been on sticky ground all week. Taking a 0-6 record into Wimbledon, he had progressed to round three after a controversial second-round defeat of Andrei Medvedev. Technically, he should have been defaulted for arriving over 20 minutes late for the match (the stipulated limit is 15 minutes). During the match, he queried a host of Medvedev serves that had comfortably cleared the net as being lets, and so unnerved the Ukrainian that it was he who came within one more racquet throwing episode of being defaulted.

This reporter watched Tarango extend the then defending French Open champion Jim Courier in Roland Garros two years ago. He came across as a lively, extrovert New Yorker, in keeping with someone who lists philosophy and creative writing as two of his main hobbies.

But he gave the impression of being a time bomb. Which may explain why, come the explosion, Tarango may be disappointed at the lack of support so far amongst his peers. The bewildered Alexander Mronz pleaded ignorance of the events, while Andre Agassi probably summed up the views of most: “I think it’s a sad situation, you know, and I just think that maybe Jeff should have taken an hour or so before he came into the Press room here, to regroup a little bit. I don’t think anybody wins in a situation like that, and there’s no reason to turn it into a circus.

“Just deal with the penalties, the fines, that Alan and the committee decides he deserves, and leave it at that, because I don’t like seeing that happen.”

Although Mats Wilander sided with Tarango on the catalytic issue of the ace that wasn’t, and suggested, bizarrely, that Tarango might have the attributes to be a player’s spokesperson (you never know with Wilander, given his dry humour), Tarango’s fellow Stanford High School alumnus, McEnroe, did not prove to be as sympathetic a kindred spirit.

“I never walked off court. I never wanted to be defaulted,” said the 36-year-old, three-time Wimbledon singles champion in his guise as an NBC commentator.

“He has hurt himself; shot himself in the foot inexplicably. I just can’t believe that he did that, and at Wimbledon of all places.”

The first player to be disqualified at a Grand Slam event in the Open era, at the Australian Open five years ago, McEnroe pointed out, that Tarango should at least have requested another umpire and seen the committee beforehand, “but I don’t think he did that”. Mills also made this point, recalling that two such requests had been granted in the past.

“At this stage I would just take away his prize-money,” added McEnroe, “which at this point is £15,000. I don’t know about a suspension, I don’t know if that is warranted. We know in the past he likes to clown around.

“He dropped his pants last year against Michael Chang in Tokyo, but he said he was doing that in fun. That’s possible, but this certainly wasn’t done in fun. He may be in for a long vacation.

“The one who is going to be hurt most by this is Jeff Tarango. I must admit I’ve said ‘shut up’ to the crowd before and not been given a warning. I didn’t realise ‘shut up’ was profane. But Jeff Tarango could use a vacation now, get away from the game and take a different perspective.”

Like everyone else, McEnroe admitted: “I did find it funny and humorous the way his wife stood up for him. I thought that was a remarkable scene, to put it mildly.”

As remarkable as anything since his own halcyon, if turbulent, years.

“More tautly strung than his racquet, he had stormed off court after the umpire, Bruno Rabeuh, had rightly ordered a let when the line judge had corrected himself for calling a Tarango first serve out. Tarango departed with the words: ‘You’re the most corrupt official in the game,’ echoing around a stunned Court 13

Earlier in the week . . .

A TOP British doubles pair were last night (June 29th, 1995) thrown out of Wimbledon in disgrace. Jeremy Bates and Tim Henman were believed to be the first players to be disqualified from the championships in the Open era after a dusk flare-up in the final match of the day.

Their match with Swede Henrik Holm and American Jeff Tarango was locked 6-6 in the fourth set when Oxford’s Henman whacked a ball in anger. It hit a ballgirl on the head and the pair were defaulted.

The girl had run on to the court to retrieve a ball when frustrated Henman let fly, hitting her on the side of the ear from close range.

She instantly fell to the ground but then she got up and walked to her position in tears. Henman walked over and asked if she was okay but when she was helped back to a spot beneath the umpire’s chair, she was still rubbing the ear and crying.

A doctor and tournament referee Alan Mills were summoned to court 14 by Australian professional umpire Wayne McKewen, who announced that Henman had been defaulted for a code violation. In a voice breaking with emotion Henman said: “I am a little shocked, it was a complete accident but I am responsible for my actions. It’s like being in a car and fiddling with the radio when someone comes out of a crossing. You are responsible. As soon as the ball hit her I had an idea I might be defaulted,” he said.

Henman’s opponent Tarango was clearly very angry at what had happened. “If I had hit the girl in such an incident I would have been thrown out of tennis.

“With the speed of the ball it could have killed her.”