John McEnroe was known for his fiery temperament during his playing days. McEnroe’s 1979 US Open match in the round of 64 against Ilie Nastase perhaps changed tennis forever. It will always be known as the last men’s professional match in which riots broke out in the New York crowd, so much so that the NYPD had to be called in to ensure that the match continued.
In a podcast with Tennis Legend recently, Nastase opened up about the controversy. The two-time Grand Slam champion admitted that he was the one who started the beef with McEnroe. He knew McEnroe could easily be annoyed, which often put him off his game.
So Nastase started deliberately wasting time between points on the court and walking back to his side below his regular speed. McEnroe finally had enough of all that gamesmanship and called the Romanian ‘S** o* a b****’. In response, Nastase called McEnroe ‘Mister S** o* a b****!’
The situation got more out of hand when McEnroe urged the umpire to penalize Nastase. It resulted in a disqualification for the man who was the antagonist of the crowd. That made the crowd furious. They came down and demanded refunds.
At that point, the referee had to step in to restore sanity on the court. Soon, the police arrived to manage the situation. Eventually, the referee was changed but a furious McEnroe refused to play at first but finally gave in and continued with the contest.
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McEnroe eventually took four sets to win against the then 33-year-old Nastase, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. The match will always be remembered as part of their rivalry. Nastase won their first three matches when he was a bigger superstar than McEnroe.
In 1979, McEnroe was 20 and Nastase was 33, and yet they were able to mend their differences.
McEnroe and Nastase remarkably had a night out after the match
In the same podcast, Nastase said that after the match, he headed out to McDonald’s after 1 am. He claimed that he saw McEnroe with two women, and it was awkward initially. However, Nastase was cool to ask him about having a beer together, and McEnroe surprisingly agreed.
In another interview with ESPN, McEnroe opened up about that incident too. He was quoted as saying:
“I did want to punch him in the mouth because I felt like he had made a mockery of the whole match.
“Just as I was about to lace into him, he said to me, “Hey MacAroni — he called me that — where are we going to dinner?’” And all of a sudden, it went from, I’m going to wring this guy’s neck to heading out together for a late night at Patrick’s Pub in Little Neck.”
McEnroe eventually had a more successful career, ending up with prize money of $12.5 million, a number that was pretty impressive for a player at the time. On the other hand, Nastase managed to earn around $2 million from the sport.
