Jim Courier sees red and "aims shot" at Umpire in Miami

[TheJDorian]

Hopefully he retires from commentating geez he's irritating.

[8bobthebuilder]

@TheJDorian tell me, what's irritating about the way Jim commentates?

[TheFatKid128]

well, it seems liek he started to play better once he hit him

[rac3318]

Eh it seems to me he hit the shot more out of general frustration and in less of an attempt to hit the umpire.

[spjfrat]

Up through the 90's, there were different styles and different personalities. This is more interesting than now.

[billykid84]

This video could probably have been thirty or forty seconds long instead of four and a half minutes...

[Techtribal1990]

@billykid84

I'm sure that's been done somewhere but I think most people would prefer the whole story and why Courier got so worked up, otherwise Courier's shot on its own would be out of context slightly, I'm glad I uploaded it like this.

[vencent905]

Come on people, how can you think that shot was an accident??? he was losing the match and he was already pissed off at the umpire and just by coincedence he nails the umpire, hmmmmmmmmm. He shoulda been FINED and SUSPENDED! If that had been Serena she woulda been BARRED from the sport.....BTW Courier here looks like he could be Tomas Berdych's twin brother...

[amck72]

No way the play was an accident...Courier knew exactly what he was doing

[marts1233]

tennis was so slow then

[Techtribal1990]

@marts1233

No it wasn't

[splendid1000]

@marts1233

LOL, tennis was WAY faster back then !! They have slowed down all the surfaces now and they all play much slower than they used to. Thats why serve and volley has vanished from the circuit. Why do you think Wimbledon is nicknamed ' Green Clay ' ?

[tomasdelonge182]

man jim's got a bad ass forehand

[mathdang]

2:41 CRAZY!

[DexterHaven49]

The ump should have said, "OK if I call that one out, Jim?"

[KarenCorr]

accident

[dodododa]

There's no way he would sacrifice a point for revenge.

[nmonowbnrtnhortnhojn]

2:40

[fastmilion]

fck courier sampras rules

[MrJT181]

Jim Courier = A Dick.

[ricannabis]

I love you Jim!!

[hattrickster33]

I don't think any tennis pro would be that big of a dick to actually deliberately do that, not even Stepanek.

[Techtribal1990]

@hattrickster33

We would like to think so.

The reason I put "aims shot" in brackets because there is no proof that he did it on purpose. I reckon Jim was hitting out in frustration, he was 40 love down and he just wanted to hit the ball in the crowd to get the frustration out, but it headed straight for the umpire's chair! - whoops!

In the 1999 ATP final, Agassi did aim a shot at Sampras' head, the crowd actually booed, I'll try to upload tha as I want to upload match highlights.

[hattrickster33]

@Techtribal1990 That would be sweet!

[flyguga]

@Techtribal1990 I'd like to see that one with Agassi aiming the shot at Agassi's head. Reminds me of the Lendl shot that he aimed at McEnroe and McEnroe went down.

[flyguga]

@Techtribal1990 I'd like to see that one with Agassi aiming at Sampras' head. Reminds me of when Lendl aimed a shot at McEnroe and McEnroe went down.

[cain2335]

@Techtribal1990 where are those 1999 atp match highlights? i'd love to see those

[datacipher]

@Techtribal1990

NO way! As you say it's very clear Courier wanted to hit the ball WAY out....you can see that on the replay...but it's also clear on the replay that he was directing that slapshot out at Dana!

He wanted to cane the ump!

He did a pretty good acting job after though, on the changeover ;-)

[Techtribal1990]

@datacipher

Hehe, Mr Courier a good actor ;-)

Fun clip though, one of my favourites I've uploaded.

[datacipher]

@Techtribal1990

Yes, I've got this match on VHS tape somewhere as well! One thing I'd love to see is a closeup of Sampras' face on his way to the changeover....I bet inside he was laughing! I have to wonder if the two ever exchanged words about it "hey, Jim, remember that forehand "accident"?" HAHA!

[Techtribal1990]

@datacipher

I would love to think Jim Courier and other pros have seen this clip and have a good laugh! Even Dana Loconto the Umpire.

I probably stopped the clip too early, two points later Courier served the ball right at Sampras who had to get out the way, Mary Carillo said "I'm liking this strategy, if you can't beat them, beat them up!!"

[oldaardvark]

If he could aim the return that well he would never lose a game.

[gregdwulet]

There is no way that this was aimed at the umpire. A hard serve from Sampras down the middle would naturally fly wide if Courier's timing was off by even a tenth of a second, which is exactly what happened.

[Penguillacious]

Gingers have no soul.

[hattrickster33]

@Penguillacious lol might as well go out there and kick him then

[The909Tennis]

This wouldn't have happened if there was Hawkeye! hehehe

[9tails23]

that does look on purpose, he's actually looking at the umpire when he hits it

[The909Tennis]

@9tails23 I used video editing software to checkout where he was looking at the moment before and after impact and he was NOT looking at the umpire. Right after impact he's looking at sampras assuming he returned it. Stop making shit up .

[9tails23]

@The909Tennis I don't know what kind of editing software you used but its pretty obvious he's looking at the umpire, sampras is toward the middle of the court after he serves and jim is looking toward the right you can tell by the angle of his hat, in fact he was looking toward the umpire before contact

[The909Tennis]

@9tails23

There are 2 shots they show the one that is birds view and the one that is oncourt directed at his face. The one that shows oncourt can result in a illusion of him looking at the umpire. However because jim is wearing a hat when you observe the first shot the birds eye you will notice he is looking forward at the ball not at the umpire.

[vaulcan]

didn't look like it was on purpose.

[quest8899]

@vaulcan lol it was on purpose

[spacecowboy95]

what a dick thing to do.

[kriklan49]

Of course he wanted to do that.

Look at his body position and how he´s "opening" the stroke to obtain that angle.

[datacipher]

@kriklan49

Yep. First, Courier never "accidently" hit a return like that in his entire career....second, both during the point, and especially on the replay, you can see Courier opening the face WAY up, and directing it WAY out right towards Dana. If you think that was an accident....uh...you don't know pro tennis!

[hillsong1004]

That wasn't on purpose. If he wanted to hit him he would have used his backhand much easier shot to do then his forehand.

[berkeleylawyer]

Clearly on purpose.