Thought tennis was the sport of gentlemen? Here are the five most outrageous things to have happened in the history of the US Open at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York.

There is an air of danger and disorder at the US Open that you don’t feel at the other Grand Slams. There's good reason for that – this is a tournament that has seen some wild, violent and unpredictable moments over the years. Aside from when Mr Nick Kyrgios is on court, we can probably expect this year’s tournament – which started yesterday – to pass with little or no incident. But where’s the fun in that? To fill the time between watching Messrs Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal contend for the men’s title (Mr Roger Federer is injured), we thought you might like to look back at the most shocking moments in the history of the US Open. And there was you thinking that Mr John McEnroe shouting at a Wimbledon linesman was as exciting as tennis got.

In the days leading up to the 2012 US Open, there was only one topic of conversation within tennis: had a 70-year-old grandmother bludgeoned her husband to death with a mug and then gone out for a manicure? Mrs Lois Goodman, an umpire and line-judge, was arrested as she prepared to travel from her Manhattan hotel to the tournament site in Queens. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Mrs Goodman had killed her 80-year-old husband, Mr Alan Goodman, in their home in California. But Mrs Goodman contended that Mr Goodman had fallen down the stairs while she was out. Mrs Goodman, who would later describe her arrest as “a public humiliation”, passed a polygraph test, and the LAPD ended up dropping the charge because of insufficient evidence.

Reaching the semi-finals of the 1975 US Open was a sideshow for the Czech-born teenager. The important part of her trip to New York came when she walked into the Immigration and Naturalisation Service building in Manhattan and defected to the US. Prague was incensed: “Martina Navratilova has suffered a defeat in the face of Czechoslovak society. Navratilova had all the possibilities in Czechoslovakia to develop her talent, but she preferred a professional career and a fat bank account.” For some time afterwards, Ms Navratilova had FBI protection while she was in the US.

New York was a city on edge in the summer of 1977. Just days before the tournament started, a serial killer known as “Son of Sam” – who had killed six victims around the city, including two victims close to the tournament venue – was caught, but the sense of unease hadn't dissipated. A teenage debutant at the US Open that year, Mr McEnroe was playing a third-round match against a fellow American Mr Eddie Gibbs when a spectator was shot through the leg with a bullet from a .38 calibre handgun. The police would later suggest that the spectator hadn't been targeted and that the bullet, which had been fired from a nearby apartment building, had accidentally found its way into the stadium.

“All hell broke loose,” reported the watching Mr John McEnroe as Ms Williams spewed threats at a line-judge who had called her for a foot-fault. This went way beyond anything Mr McEnroe ever did. “I swear to god, I’ll f------ take the ball and shove it down your f------ throat,” Ms Williams said. The foot-fault had given Ms Kim Clijsters a point for a place in the 2009 final. Ms Williams was given a one-point penalty for her behaviour. Game over. Later that year Ms Williams was given the largest fine in tennis history – $82,500 – as well as being threatened with suspension. “I get fined more than American football players who beat up people, punch people, break their necks and kill people. It's a joke and I'm not afraid to say it's a joke either,” Ms Williams said.

Some disruption had been widely predicted when Messrs Năstase and McEnroe, two of the most volatile of tennis players, met in the second round at the 1979 US Open, with the mood summed up by a banner that read: “This tennis match has been rated ‘R’. No one under 17 admitted without a parent or a guardian.” What no one had imagined was just how wild a night it would be. The source of the contention was Mr Năstase being defaulted after a series of protests at what he considered to be Mr McEnroe's slow play (these protests included the Romanian pretending to fall asleep). The spectators threw beer cans and other debris on to the court. Insults were tossed around. To prevent a possible riot, the police took up position on the court, and the tournament officials reinstated Mr Nastase and replaced the umpire. In the end, Mr McEnroe won anyway.

Mr Mark Hodgkinson is the author of Fedegraphica: A Graphic Biography of the Genius of Roger Federer