The Baseline Top 12: Racquet smashes of the year

It's not to be encouraged, but it can be amusing, if not fascinating. Over the course of a famously long and grueling season, it's bound to happen: A player, even one highly esteemed by peers and the public, becomes irritated to the point of wreaking violence upon his or her battle ax. And such anger takes all comers: Prince. Babolat. Wilson. Yonex. Indeed, racquet smashing welcomes all.

Here, in no particular order, are the more-or-less best racquet smashes of the year.

1

Call it Fritz and the Tantrum: Teenage wunderkind Taylor Fritz wasn't happy with himself upon dumping a highly makeable forehand into the net in doubles action alongside Stefan Kozlov at the Maui Challenger event in late January.

Thus Taylor's game went on the fritz, and the subtle hilarity of the moment sent Kozlov to his knees with laughter. With that errant shot, the super-tiebreak score was favoring Fritz and Kozlov's foes, Toshihide Matsui and Dean O'Brien, who recovered from the exhibition-esque kick to tough out the match victory, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), 10-6.

2

Sent to the new Grandstand court at the US Open in late August, Steve Johnson knew that John Isner had won a five-set thriller over compatriot Frances Tiafoe in the same opening round. Soon enough, Johnson found himself down a set and 1-4 to Evgeny Donskoy, a player he had soundly beaten 6-1, 6-1 weeks earlier in Rio. And it was at that point that Johnson let fly with a two-stroke bashing of his stick. He would ultimately save six match points en route to seizing a first-round, five-set victory.

3

The most stylish racquet break in the mix goes to one Alexander Kudryavtsev, who, when he got mad against Peter Gojowczyk, looked like a color-guard member specializing in the rifle:

If racquet smashes counted for anything, Kudryavtsev would notch both an assist and point scored for his showing. Even so, Gojowczyk won the match 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 at the ATP Challenger event in Bergamo, Italy, in February, his third in three tries against his frustrated foe.

4

Rest in peace, Vine. And rest in pieces, the dearly departed weapon of Serena Williams. Fed up after squandering eight break points in losing a first set to Christina McHale at Wimbledon in July, she sat down and then forcefully slapped her racquet on the grass before sending it sliding behind her, and straight into the lap of a cameraman.

The chair umpire issued a code violation to Serena, who turned around the match to win 6-7 (7), 6-2, 6-4. Just before leaving Centre Court, she gifted said racquet to an eager fan in what Wimbledon's own Twitter account termed "a touch of class."

5

May Day! On the first day of that month, Grigor Dimitrov lost the Istanbul final against Diego Schwartzman, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-0 after fits of both fury and cramps. This wasn't just repeated racquet smashing; this was a demolition derby.

... Twice ...

... Three times a rage-y. The violence continued even after Dimitrov had been defaulted from the match via a game penalty:

And those racquets are more difficult to break on clay at that. Baseline's Nina Pantic wrote at the time, "Dimitrov may not be in the Top 10 anymore in the ATP rankings, but he’s now No. 1 in racquet destruction." Indeed, his new theme song coming out of that (un)forgettable episode was definitely Ladytron's "Destroy Everything You Touch." Dimitrov was conciliatory in the no-way-around-the-awkward trophy ceremony, stating, "I let my family down, I let my team down, I let my fans down."

6

The fiery Frenchman Benoit Paire typically wears his emotions on his Lacoste sleeve, which leads to him landing here twice. First up: his petulant smash at January's Australian Open upon double-faulting against Noah Rubin, then a teenage wild-card entrant who ultimately upset him, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5).

"Another day at the office," Rubin said later.

"I played against not a good player, but I was very bad today," the unsporting Paire bitingly told the press afterward. Never mind that his distressed racquet nearly struck a ball kid running toward the fuzzy little sphere that was the object of Paire's affliction.

Paire also spiked his racquet like an American footballer who had just scored a touchdown during his Monte-Carlo Masters first rounder in April:

But what, really, should we expect from someone who lashes out irrationally like so?

7

Eugenie Bouchard will tell you herself that she had a "very average" season, and it showed in some of her on-court behavior. At the Indian Wells tournament in March, she smacked her racquet to the hard court twice before losing 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to Timea Bacsinszky.

Bouchard then offered a repeat performance on the Wimbledon turf in the midst of submitting to Dominika Cibulkova, 6-4, 6-3. "I definitely was a bit emotional out there," she offered to the press later, saying that for all of Cibulkova's attacks on her serve, she often "didn't have an answer."

8

"Umpire tonight with Vika showing a lot of restraint," Pam Shriver tweeted in March. Before she passed on the back half of the 2016 season in light of her pregnancy, Victoria Azarenka was having a solid year. Someone who finished the year just as solidly: Karoline Pliskova, Azarenka's Indian Wells semifinal foe. and then took the final over Serena.

9

At the Shanghai Masters event in mid-October, Novak Djokovic wasn't quite himself. Indeed, he wasn't in most of his matches after Stan Wawrinka stunned him for the US Open championship in September, but small matter. This encounter saw him fall to Roberto Bautista-Agut by a 6-4, 6-4 count—but not before he delivered a sub-orchestral racquet smash in three movements and ripped open the collar of his polo.

10

Even perennial sportsmanship-award winner Roger Federer can be prone to moments of anger, and his came early in 2016, against Milos Raonic in the final of the Brisbane tuneup before the Aussie Open. After missing a routine backhand, Federer basically dropped his racquet to the ground. (Yes, that's the closest we're likely to ever again get from him.)

"That counts as a huge outburst for Roger Federer," said TV commentator Jim Courier in the heat of Raonic's 6-4, 6-4 victory. So yes, that's the closest we're likely to ever again get from the GOAT, but to satiate your need for a show, check out his best mini-events from the vault.

11

Many times a loser at the ATP's Dubai stop, Stan Wawrinka found himself a winner against Sergiy Stakhovsky. But first, he crushed a racquet after blowing a 5-3 lead in the first set, receiving a racquet-abuse warning as a result. "Not playing well, still winning," Wawrinka shrugged afterward. He would go on to become the tournament champion.

12

In fifth-set Davis Cup action—and on the heels of a 30-stroke baseline rally, no less—Dominic Thiem let loose with a seven-count racquet smash against Gastao Elias. The passion behind the pounding his equipment took showed just how much he wanted the match, which he went on to win in a final-set tiebreak. Thiem also won in doubles and reverse singles on that March weekend to almost single handedly seize the tie for Austria.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.