{"id":56504,"date":"2020-08-29T21:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T18:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/john-mcenroe-on-us-open-tennis-social-equality-regression-biggest-rivals\/"},"modified":"2020-08-29T21:08:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T18:08:00","slug":"john-mcenroe-on-us-open-tennis-social-equality-regression-biggest-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/john-mcenroe-on-us-open-tennis-social-equality-regression-biggest-rivals\/","title":{"rendered":"#John McEnroe on US Open, tennis\u2019 social equality regression, biggest rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#John McEnroe on US Open, tennis\u2019 social<\/a> equality regression, biggest rivals<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Seven-time major champion, International Tennis Hall of Famer and current analyst John McEnroe discusses the upcoming fan-less U.S. Open in Queens in a Q&A volley with Post columnist Steve Serby.<\/em><\/p>\n

Q: What do you think Arthur Ashe would have thought about what\u2019s going on in the world today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I wish Arthur was around now. I miss him to this day. I often wondered why at times he\u2019d be a bit muted. I didn\u2019t understand it, I was young. \u2026 It was about being a black man and not being able to express himself. \u2026 As time has gone on, realizing that he wasn\u2019t able just because of the color of his skin to express himself in a way \u2019cause they would have made comments about it that would have been different; they got on me, but for different reasons. As he got older and then he got the all-time bum steer, when he had the heart attack and the blood transfusion giving him AIDS, I\u2019m like, \u201cMy God, this is just incredible that this guy is this unlucky.\u201d And then to see the stadium named after him, I just wish that he had been around to see that. And now, as an elder statesman, he would have been, I believe, involved more than ever.<\/p>\n

Q: How would you have handled no fans at the Open when you played?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I don\u2019t know how I would have handled it, but I fed on fans, and I think in some cases hopefully fans fed off me, for better or for worse. But certainly watching guys like (Jimmy) Connors use a crowd so beautifully at the Open, to me it was like inspirational. As you may imagine, when things have been playing out in not just tennis, all sports, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about how this would look and what tennis should do if in fact the U.S. Open decided to have no fans, and I had mixed feelings. I\u2019ve gone both ways \u2014 we shouldn\u2019t have it, we should have it, the players need to make a living, it\u2019s important for the sport to be out there. I\u2019ve accepted it because I\u2019ve seen what some of the other sports have done, some better than obviously, with the way it\u2019s been presented, and it\u2019s easier for some others. As an aside, I just want to say, as an ex-athlete but as an athlete, I\u2019m proud of what the players in the NBA in particular have been doing to try to step up and to be heard.<\/p>\n

Q: What can tennis do regarding where we are in this country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I\u2019ve had a tennis academy for the past 10 years at Randalls Island, and my idea was in essence to try to get inner-city kids the opportunity to play this great sport and give them the chance that they wouldn\u2019t otherwise have, because to me tennis is too much like the 1 percent. And I noticed even when I first came on the tour and started travel<\/a>ing the world, and seeing that tennis was higher up on the totem pole in other countries \u2014 particularly Europe and Australia, South America \u2014 than it was in the States \u2026 I always thought, and Connors made me believe watching him, and then playing against him and the energy that we were bringing to the sport, it seemed like things were changing, that was a great time to come into tennis. But we needed to make the sport more for the masses, and to make it more accessible and affordable, and to my disapp<\/a>ointment, that hasn\u2019t happened. If anything, it seems like it\u2019s more expensive and become more elite. It\u2019s been extremely frustrating to have to watch this over the years, and I will continue to try to battle and fight for opportunity. Obviously with what Billie Jean King did way back when, she demanded and fought for equal prize money for women and then subsequently Title IX in the \u201970s gave opportunity to young girls. Having grown up and have four girls out of my six kids, I see that there\u2019s opportunities there, and that makes me proud that they have a chance to do things that weren\u2019t even imaginable not that long ago. But we\u2019re also seeing that there\u2019s a lot of work to do. The playing field obviously for young girls in tennis is better than any other sport. \u2026 Right now it\u2019s hard to know exactly what to do, and obviously I\u2019m glad that the USTA decided to not play [Thursday] to support what\u2019s happening with the NBA, and other leagues followed suit. But obviously it remains to be seen if we can right these wrongs and the racial injustice that we\u2019re seeing. We have to just hope and pray. There\u2019s been obviously progress made over the course of the last \u2014 well, you can go back to the Civil War \u2014 but progress is being made but obviously still a lot of work needs to be done, and hopefully it\u2019s gonna happen sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Q: What do you expect the quality of tennis and the conditioning of the players to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: You have to go to the individual, how hard were they able to train? What type of conditions were they training under? How will what\u2019s going on off the court affect what\u2019s going on on the court? And certainly in these type of conditions where it could be extremely hot, it\u2019s pretty easy to talk yourself out of it, especially with no fans. If I was gonna general<\/a>ize, the big hitters, the big servers, the wham-bam-thank-you-ma\u2019am\u2019s the fans may not gravitate as much towards, I think they\u2019re gonna have a great chance to have a lot of success at the event, whereas other players that feed off the energy are gonna have a tougher time. It\u2019s gonna be interesting to see how Serena (Williams) handles it, because wherever she goes now, people are wanting her to tie the record and break Margaret Court\u2019s record. But now she\u2019s gonna have to feed off her own energy, so that\u2019s gonna be something that she\u2019s not used to. (Novak) Djokovic obviously is a guy that everyone\u2019s gonna pick to win the tournament. He went through a tough patch when he got the coronavirus when he played in his charity exhibition, he took a lot of heat from that. He\u2019s used the crowd to his advantage and occasionally it\u2019s been a disadvantage for him. \u2026 He\u2019s going after history. He\u2019s trying to catch up to (Roger) Federer and (Rafael Nadal) so he\u2019s got a lot of incentive to try to take advantage of their absence and win this thing.<\/p>\n

Q: What makes Djokovic great?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: He\u2019s like the human backboard, and he\u2019s like Gumby, he\u2019s got incredible flexibility and speed, and he\u2019s a master at not beating himself and allowing you to do it to yourself. He\u2019s as mentally tough. \u2026 I relate to Novak a little bit because I remember coming up and trying to get the same level of respect or even close to what Connors and (Bjorn) Borg had, and that was a tall order. And he\u2019s had that, especially with Federer, who\u2019s the most beautiful player ever, and Nadal with that grit. At worst, he\u2019s one of the top-five players ever.<\/p>\n

Q: Who might be his biggest threat?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I think one of these big bombers would be his biggest threat, and the other threat would be if he hasn\u2019t been able to train as hard, if he got into some type of physical war with one of the fitter guys or younger guys that don\u2019t have that issue in their head potentially. To me there\u2019s very few guys that can beat him, so he\u2019s gonna have to beat himself, and that would be due to conditions that would be unbearable, or unforeseen circumstances. If he decided not to play, it would have been wide open.<\/p>\n

Q: What has made Serena Williams great?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: When you talk about what attributes great champions have, they have that will that most players, most humans don\u2019t have \u2014 that ability to find an extra gear when they need to. Forget the fact that she\u2019s got this huge game<\/a>, and that she instills fear by her power and intimidates people. \u2026 The resolve that she has, never giving in. It\u2019s easy to get discouraged when things are getting bad, you gotta fight that. She\u2019s proven to be one of the greatest athletes, man or woman in the last 100 years, 50 years \u2014she\u2019s up there with the Michael Jordans, in that same stratospheric league \u2026 LeBron James \u2026 these all-time legends. I think that over the course of the last few years, especially since she became a mom, people look at her in a different way and realize when they look back in 20 years what type of impact she was able [to make] \u2026 especially coming in a sport like I said earlier that\u2019s 99 percent, 95 percent white.<\/p>\n

Q: Who might be the biggest threat to her?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: The biggest threat to her to me is herself. She\u2019s better than any other player to not play for extended periods of time and step out and play well. But she doesn\u2019t have the same fear factor that she had a few years ago. Because she\u2019s had opportunities where she\u2019s been in the finals and it looked like to some extent the nerves got the best of her. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any players that she\u2019s afraid of playing. I just think that there\u2019s more times as you get older, the game isn\u2019t there, the mind might be thinking about political things in the middle of a match. Lord knows with everything going on, it\u2019d be hard not to give {thought to) what she\u2019s gone through in her own life. So it\u2019s gonna be a tall order for her to be able to keep that focus without fans, and to motivate herself.<\/p>\n

Q: What do you think of Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I love both of them. Naomi seems to be a pretty shy person, and she\u2019s starting to step out a bit, and I think that\u2019s really important for her as a person and for our sport. I think both of \u2019em are gonna win multiple Grand Slams in the future, Naomi\u2019s already won a couple. Coco\u2019s obviously a breath of fresh air. Hopefully she\u2019s nurtured properly \u2014 she\u2019s a kid, she\u2019s 16 years old.<\/p>\n

Q: How did the Open crowd motivate you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: There\u2019s nothing like a New York crowd. I grew up here, and I started going to the Garden when I was a kid, I was ballboy at Forest Hills. It can be unbelievably positive, and it can get to you as it\u2019s gotten to a lot of players. But the motivation you can get, if you can figure out a way to use it to your advantage, can keep you going in matches where it\u2019s 90 degrees and there\u2019s a lot of humidity and your body\u2019s starting to give on you. It can be the difference between winning and losing. Now I\u2019m biased, \u2019cause I\u2019m a New Yorker. But there\u2019s no fans like it.<\/p>\n

Q: Did you feel as embraced as you would have hoped by the New York tennis crowd, the way Connors was?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I was like, \u201cThe guy grew up in St. Louis, he\u2019s a great champion and he\u2019s a great competitor, but the guy\u2019s not from New York. Hold on here.\u201d At times I got frustrated with that, because I thought he was like conning us a little bit. But I had to give him credit, though. If you told me to pick the 10 loudest ovations you\u2019ve ever heard, Connors would probably be in six of the 10 points. He brought unbelievable energy.<\/p>\n

Q: What made Borg great?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: He was the greatest athlete we had had up to that point. The fastest guy I ever saw, couldn\u2019t read what he was thinking, totally unpredictable game, but an all-time great competitor. He showed me that in the Wimbledon \u201980 final when he won that fifth set. I\u2019m proud to say we\u2019re still buddies.<\/p>\n

Q: What made [Ivan] Lendl great?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: He was able to recognize that he was struggling in some of the big moments mentally, so that he turned into something more prototypical of what you see today, incredible fitness that would get him to become tougher mentally.<\/p>\n

Q: What made Connors great?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Connors, with Nadal, the all-time greatest competitors that ever played the game. He played every point like it was the last point he was ever gonna play. And he had an intensity that was unrivaled, and he was able to go from total anger to putting his arm around somebody making a joke. I was pretty good at the anger part, but I wasn\u2019t very good at turning it into something lighthearted.<\/p>\n

Q: What made John McEnroe great?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Well, I tried to emulate some of what I saw growing up. I tried to play like Rod Laver, I tried to go out and try as hard as Jimmy Connors. I was blessed by being taught a style of play that suited my mentality \u2014 to go after people, keep pressure on people, I come ready to play. I didn\u2019t blow people away with my physical strength, I blew \u2019em away because I moved well, I had good timing and I came ready to play. And I had a game that was awkward to a lot of people and different.<\/p>\n