Osaka’s fallout with the media echoes toxic brawl at McEnroe press event

Tennis press conferences were causing problems long before Naomi Osaka. Simon O’Hagan looks back 40 years to the day that the questions got too much for John McEnroe – and reporters started trading blows

The ball’s out! McEnroe was a genius with the racket but had a terrible temper (Getty)

When the Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka pulled out of the French Open last month in the wake of her decision not to attend mandatory post-match press conferences, she triggered echoes of another high-profile tennis press conference refusenik, and of an extraordinary incident that took place at Wimbledon 40 years ago this summer.

Not everyone will be aware of those echoes, because the incident, which ended up with reporters coming to blows, was an embarrassment for the media, little reported at the time, and had repercussions that were not for public consumption. The events that unfolded have rarely been referred to since.

Only those members of the press who were present when the incident occurred – myself included – are privy to its significance, and will share a sense that what happened in a cramped basement room at the All England Club one sweltering afternoon in July 1981 marked a key moment in the evolution of player-media relations.