Rod Laver once confessed he would re-tie his shoelaces as a stall tactic.
Jennifer Capriati once asked the chair umpire at US Open to have the Goodyear Blimp move as it was in her sightline.
Ivan Lendl used to pluck his eye lashes as a stall tactic.
Some players have played the ball is soft stall tactic trick, asking the chair umpire to inspect and replace the damaged ball.
Some players used to complain about sun reflection off of a fan’s watch or jewelry or credential but I haven’t seen that one in quite a while.
John McEnroe’s arguments with chair umpires and complaints about photographer’s making too much noise with their cameras were not his only stall tactics. He also played the No Mas card. Bobby Wilson remembers an incident at 1977 Wimbledon mixed doubles. “My partner Jackie Payter and I led John McEnroe and Mary Carillo 64 51 only to lose concentration and let the match slip away, losing 97 in the final set. McEnroe’s antics and comments didn’t help my concentration level. At one stage McEnroe said loudly, “I give up.” At this I walked up to the net to shake hands. As far as I was concerned he had surrendered the match. The umpire said, “Play on.” I said McEnroe’s statement meant we were entitled to be awarded the match. I am still unsure 50 years later whether McEnroe did want to default. Or was it a clever piece of gamesmanship to break my concentration?”
Boris Becker used the same trick at Wimbledon vs Tim Mayotte in the R16 as defending champion in 1986. Becker was behind two sets to one and in trouble late in the fourth set when he fell and supposedly hurt his ankle and verbally quit the match. Ion Tiriac, Becker’s coach, convinced Boris to continue playing, which he did after a substantial delay, and with the phony ankle injury he won the fourth set tiebreaker and fifth set 62 to win the match.
Andy Murray had a few inventive stalls. He would break multiple shoe laces, one time he cut his own hair on a changeover. He also punched his strings which bloodied his knuckles and earned a medical time out.
Novak Djokovic was accused of faking injuries early in his career and then was also criticized for his long ball bouncing before serves for important points. Later on Djokovic would use contact lens malfunctions for delaying a match.
Rafael Nadal used a series of rituals before every serve of every match he ever played, which don’t even have to be mentioned because we have all seen them hundreds or thousands of times.
I remember some subtle trickery by Fabrice Santoro. He was cramping between points vs James Blake at US Open – but never during a point – and also coughing between points before Blake served.
Who could ever forget Mirka calling Stan Wawrinka a crybaby during a match vs Federer at World Tour Finals? Stan also accused Mirka of gamesmanship earlier that year at Wimbledon. Stan felt Mirka was intentionally distracting him to help Roger.
We could go on and on. Gamesmanship certainly adds an element of controversy to a tennis match, which improves the overall theatrical presentation of a match.
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Scoop Malinowski · June 2, 2026 at 2:09 pm
Other notable examples of gamesmanship. Water not cold enough. Towels not soft enough. One player saying another player smells. Mirra saying she smelled a bad smell coming from the crowd. A player ordering a coffee.
Sam · June 3, 2026 at 5:22 am
Just curious—has any player ever complained that an official smelled? 🤣
Scoop Malinowski · June 3, 2026 at 7:08 am
Sam, not to my knowledge but Putintseva has been known to verbally abuse a female chair umpire’s appearance or weight in Russian which nobody on court could understand the language, she did this in her early pro days, a Russian media told me her language was shockingly bad. But she got lucky nobody knew what she was saying.
Steve · June 3, 2026 at 7:58 am
Murray used to feign injury, walking around in agony with a limp and then suddenly rip winners…this was BEFORE his hip injury and working with Lendl.
He was a master at gamesmanship and the first to complain about it when someone did the same against him.
Scoop Malinowski · June 3, 2026 at 10:25 am
Murray was a very crafty sneaky smart player indeed. Let’s hope his coaching career does not nosedive with Draper after the Djokovic flop because he is on the hot seat now to produce some good coaching results.