Conventional wisdom has it that the tennis temper tantrum was born around the time Ilie Nastase, the "Bucharest Buffoon", used four-letter words on the tennis courts of the world in the late '60s. But the fact is, evidence for the phenomenon can be found at least as far back as the 1930s when Fred Perry played in blinding white trousers and buckskin tennis shoes.

In early August 1931, a Herald "special correspondent" reported on the end of another Wimbledon tournament. Such disappointments: An American upstart, Sidney Wood, claimed the championship silver gilt cup. Worse still, there was "bad temper on court".

"The undue adulation which has been showered on [Bunny] Austin and [Fred] Perry, on Miss Nuthall and Mrs Fearnley-Whittingstall and is being showered on even younger players of promise, is undoubtedly an important factor in delaying a British revival in the game … Players are exalted to international stardom before reaching it by the fiery trial of Wimbledon's centre court," wrote the correspondent, adding that spectators were attracted to Wimbledon not just for championship tennis, but by the "champions' tantrums".

"Thus, Perry, on many occasions, was guilty of exhibitions of bad temper and irritation … Madame Mathieu​, the French woman champion, is another whose behaviour on the court does not always please onlookers. The talking-picture man caught her in one incident at the end of her semi-final match … and doubtless the Australian cinemas will show it," the correspondent huffed.

Just as, 84 years later, the talking-picture people would catch and beam to the world's LCD screens, images of a 1.93 metre, young Australian player behaving displeasingly on court.

Tsk, tsk. In the collective outrage that followed, one could almost sense a mass venting at Gen Y and its offensive sense of entitlement and narcissism. It was as though Kyrgios, with his bling and his buzzed and blonded hair, became every malodorous, pestiferous and delinquent youth ever to trouble a train carriage, utter obscenities in the street or scare little old ladies.

Outraged and evidently older letter writers to the Herald talked about "standards" and "gentlemen" and "juvenile delinquents". The sound of a million mutterings of "the youth of today" and "manners cost nothing" wafted on the breeze. Memories of "Gentleman Jack" Crawford and Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall were wheeled out to prove points.

On Twitter, a more youthful rage was evident. The official Wimbledon account asked, "An eventful #Wimbledon is over for the 20-year-old...so what's next for Nick Kyrgios?" The owner of an account called @MyWildLove1 came back with the answer: "Umm, maybe finding all his dummies & putting them back in the pram & then hopefully learning some manners & respect and humility."

What many seemed to overlook, including a bumbling, bile-filled Dawn Fraser – who advised Australian-born Kyrgios to go back to the land of his forebears – was that pots shouldn't call kettles black. In the process of expressing opinions about Kyrgios' cussing and umpire abuse, it was demonstrated that he is not the only one to have very poor manners. The language of the debate, as seen mostly on social media, was unedifying. "Loser", "brat", "twat", "tosser", "twerp" were politer observations.

When Kyrgios wrote on his Facebook page that it had "been a long trip, great and not so great experiences for me but all good learning", many of the thousand-plus commenters showed their boorish and uncouth natures. "TURD of the highest quality," said one, thus demonstrating once and for all that it takes one to know one.

The Herald's special Wimbledon correspondent of 1931 might well have had thoughts of his own on the matter of Nick Kyrgios and his temper tantrums. They might even have resembled his thoughts about the behaviour of Mr Perry and Madame Mathieu. "... These exhibitions of human frailties are among Wimbledon's sideshows," he wrote.

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