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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]Most racquet smashes are worth laughing at; some are worth cherishing for posterity. Some classics I’ll look up on YouTube—I’m thinking of Grigor Dimitrov’s 2016 Istanbul final, which saw him obliterate three sticks to concede the last game. Usually they’re just the outcome of a bad day. Wednesday’s big blow-up at the Miami Open was historic, but for reasons that are slightly more … loaded. For the first six games, Vasek Pospisil was playing a competitive first-round match, until, suddenly, he wasn’t. On a routine return of serve, he smashed the ball clean out of the court. Then he gave an exploratory racquet smack to the metal box that held his towel. Then he spiked it on the ground—code violation, racquet abuse. Then he tanked a couple points to go down 15-40, added on a little muffled profanity—code violation, verbal abuse—to earn the point penalty and concede the set.