wag Illustration by Christopher Nielsen.

I’ve seen a lot of tennis WAGs in my three decades (gulp) covering the game. We’ve had Academy Award-winners, cover-girls, pop stars, soapie starlets, even (believe it or not) the odd tennis player. Andre Agassi alone gave us the eye-popping parade of Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields and Steffi Graf. Wives And Girlfriends have even swapped camps, as when Mats Wilander’s girlfriend ended up as Stefan Edberg’s wife. But never – until recently – had we seen WAGs abuse opponents. Even the former Mrs McEnroe, Tatum (aka Tantrum) O’Neal, didn‘t descend to that.

But we didn’t reckon on the demure, doe-eyed, pet-portraitist Kim Sears. In the glare of the Australian Open semi-finals, before a televised audience in the hundreds of millions, the future Mrs Andy Murray fired this at her man’s opponent, Tomas Berdych: “F****** have that, you f******* Czech f***”. For the final, Sears played up her potty mouth by sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content”. This just weeks after Mirka Federer’s “cry-baby” heckling of Stan Wawrinka in a heated semi-final against her hubby at the ATP Finals in London. Wawrinka lost after holding four match points. Do we need a Code of Conduct for WAGs now?

Op-ed writers rushed to defend the WAGs gone wild. According to Jo Hartley in The Sydney Morning Herald, Sears’ outburst “just proves why we should swear more”. Swearing is “linguistic stress release”, aiding tolerance of pain and frustration. So let’s have more swearing, then? You cannot be serious.

Mrs Federer’s defender, Max Davidson, did Petrocelli proud in a piece for The Telegraph titled, “Let’s hear it for the passionate sporting wife.” Davidson praised Mirka for being a refreshing change from the parade of Botox babes, there to be ogled, not heard. Mirka’s “devoted, unqualified, full-throated support” is admirable, according to Davidson. Unladylike be damned! Would we be hailing such unrestrained passion if it came from the likes of John Tomic or Yuri Sharapov? Or any HAB (Husband And Boyfriend)? Nah, didn’t think so.

Fact is, there’s a clear line between supporting your man and abusing the opponent, and both women know exactly where that line is, as neither is a newbie to the tennis scene. Miroslava Vavrinec is a former top 100 player and long-time manager of her superstar husband. Kim Sears is a former junior whose father Nigel has coached a host of leading women players, including Ana Ivanovic and Daniela Hantuchova.

The optics, as they say, are not good. More than that; emotional grenades lobbed by WAGs can seriously backfire. Any change in the atmosphere of the player box can spill onto the court, especially in the highly strung “quiet-please” routine-obsessed sport of tennis. How is the player supposed to stay focused if his support crew can’t keep it together? Murray does enough venting at his box as it is, without dealing with emotional volleys flying the other way. Federer had to do some hasty fence-mending with Wawrinka, just days out from their first Davis Cup final. Not coincidentally, Mirka was nowhere to be seen when her hubster clinched Switzerland’s first Davis Cup in France.

For all their superficial perks, tennis WAGs have it tough. Everyone acknowledges that it’s emotional torture to watch helplessly from the sidelines. And both Kim and Mirka fall way short of the all-time low in tennis WAGdom: the former Mrs Jeff Tarango accosting umpire Bruno Rebeuh at Wimbledon 1995 after he defaulted her husband and delivering an almighty slap across his kisser.

But do we really want WAGs in the thick of the action? Or dominating the post-match chatter, as when Gisele Bundchen blamed husband Tom Brady’s team-mates for losing the 2012 Super Bowl? What’s good social media grist or tabloid TV is often not great for the game. Ladies, if it’s too hot in the stand, there’s always the option of the players’ lounge or hotel. Fire all the verbal volleys you want – at the TV.

- Suzi Petkovski