John McEnroe
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe Jr.is an American former World No. 1 professional tennis player, often rated among the greatest of all time in the sport, especially for his touch on the volley. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles, nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. He also won a record eight year-end championships, 19 Grand Prix Super Series titles, and finished his career with 77 ATP-listed singles titles and 78 in doubles...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAthlete
Date of Birth16 February 1959
CountryUnited States of America
Well I think that's probably one of a few, where I grew up in the City of New York, it's got a lot of energy, my parents are Irish-American so there was a bit of yelling going on in my house but it seemed normal.
I haven't seen a professional player come out of New York in over 20 years since my brother Patrick came out. Blake spent a few years in Harlem, but he moved to Connecticut when he was a kid.
Maybe I should have played two more Australians and two less Davis Cups? I could have had more majors and still have three Davis Cups when most people don't have one.
It's one thing if you live in London and you're rooting for Chelsea or you're in New York and you love the Giants or Jets and no matter who's on the team you're into it. It's different in tennis; you're sort of your own guy, so you have to reach out and grab a person in a different way.
Things slow down, the ball seems a lot bigger and you feel like you have more time. Everything computes - you have options, but you always take the right one.
I'd like to be the commissioner of tennis, but do I want to get into politics? Sometimes I have delusions of grandeur that that would be an interesting, good thing. I'm talking about actual politics, like being a congressman, but then I see how unbelievably nasty it really is, and maybe I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to actually do it.
I think the players, I put in the book for example that we should go back to wood rackets, probably they laughed at me, I'm a dinosaur, but I think that you see these great players, have even more variety and you see more strategy, there'd be more subtlety.
Believe it or not, I was a pretty shy youngster growing up.
The greatest compliment I ever got was when people called me an artist, and I understand that solo aspect of being an artist, when you're in there by yourself, trying to do something great, and people who don't even know you can come up and just dump on you.
This taught me a lesson, but I'm not quite sure what it is.
But these guys learn so fast now, they sort of soak up the information, they're fearless. Those are the guys who learn from their mistakes and come back strong the next time.
We've come this far so we might as well go all the way.