What sort of a fuppin’ grasshole would give somebody a warning for saying something as innocent as that?
Despite the fact that etiquette is more important in tennis than it is in many other sports, it has been littered over the years with players who can’t help throwing the odd tantrum or letting rip with expletive-filled rants from time to time.
John McEnroe obviously stands out, Serena Williams gets a little hot under the collar occasionally and nobody who saw it will forget Jeff Tarango’s outburst towards an umpire at Wimbledon in 1995.
Considering that he was obviously angry at losing a point during a match against Alexander Zverev in the Sarasota Open yesterday, Donald Young did pretty well to restrain himself from uttering profanities immediately afterwards, instead yelling ‘son of a biscuit man’ repeatedly in an outburst of self-criticism.
Despite the fact that it was quite clear exactly what he had said, Young still earned a rebuke and a warning from the umpire, an action, which, in the eyes of Young at least, took the biscuit, or took the son of the biscuit in this case.
How exactly the phrase entered Young’s vocabulary we’re not entirely sure, but unsubstantiated rumours suggest that he had been spending an awful lot of time in a particular picnic area in Craggy Island in the build-up to the tournament…
Hat-tip: James Dart
