McEnroe: I’d be boring to watch now but win more as Hawk-Eye stops rows
‘Modern stars have teams, they’re like robots, machines’
WIMBLEDON legend John McEnroe believes he would achieve even greater success if he played tennis now… but would be “more boring” to watch.
The winner of seven Grand Slam singles titles says modern tracking technology used in sports, such as Hawk-Eye, has put an end to lengthy arguments about line calls and allows players to focus on the match.
McEnroe was notorious for losing his temper and yelling at umpires, “You cannot be serious!” when a decision went against him.
But now the 64-year-old reflects that he would have been better off concentrating on gameplay than letting his emotions run wild.
He told Radio Times: “I think that tennis is one of the few sports where you don’t need umpires or linesmen. If you have this equipment, and it’s accurate, isn’t it nice to know that the correct call’s being made?
“Had I had it from the very beginning, I would have been more boring but I would have won more. That energy, that 10 per cent of me that I wasted fuming – if I had focused that on the tennis part of it, I think that my results would have been better.”
He said Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, who retired last year, are “the greatest that ever lived”.
The “Big Three” have 64 singles titles between them, with Nadal and Djokovic holding 22 titles, and Federer 20.
Despite their ability, McEnroe believes “its not the same” as when his rivalry with Swedish star Bjorn Borg thrilled fans on and off the court in the 1980s because tennis has become more corporate.
He said: “The guys have teams, they’re like robots, machines, as opposed to, in a way, human beings.
“The market forces, the money, the combination of things that took place along with rule changes that were trying to stifle personality, which I don’t think was a good thing.
“This is where we are now – the three greatest players I believe ever lived are playing now and, even though they are unbelievable, in certain ways, it’s not the same.”
McEnroe and Borg’s epic Wimbledon duels will feature in the second episode of Gods Of Tennis, a three-part BBC Two series that begins on Sunday at 9pm.
Now some 40 years later, McEnroe admits he so admired the cool, unflappable Borg that he tried to emulate him on court, though it did not last long.
He said: “I actually decided, after watching him and playing him a bit, ‘OK, you have to practise and behave the way Bjorn does’. This was practice. At matches, that would go out the door in 10 minutes.”
McEnroe retired from the game in 1992 but is still a regular at Wimbledon and will be providing BBC commentary when the championships begin on July 3.