John McEnroe: When everything fell apart | Trending Now

Tennis great John McEnroe reflects on his pro tennis career, including maximizing his potential for success, the questions that arise from taking time off and hard times as the ending of his pro career coincided with a failing marriage.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey guys, Graham here. It's Friday, which means we get
to share with you another one ofour most popular clips from a
past interview this week, John McEnroe.
What you're about to listen to is trending this week on our
Facebook page. Hope you enjoy.
To what extent do you feel you maximize your potential?

(00:22):
That's difficult to say. I'd say probably 90%, you know,
I mean, I didn't reach my potential, but it's very
difficult to reach your potential.
I think I did better than most people when I took time off for
six months off or so when which doesn't seem like a crazy amount
of time now. I was coming back to be a better
player. I didn't, you know, I wasn't,

(00:43):
you know, parents thought he's going to quit or some people
thought, no, I was going to comeback and be a better player.
That was the plan. I mean, it wasn't a plan to be a
worse player. And I tried a whole set of
things, whether it was, you know, weightlifting, you know,
yoga, training more off court, getting back to playing a little

(01:03):
bit more, changing, trying different racket, whatever it
was, anything and everything at the time.
If you look at where I was at, say the end of 19841985, I'm I,
I did feel at that particular stage that I thought to myself
that maybe it sounds egotisticaland I guess it is.

(01:25):
When I was at that stage, I thought no one's ever played,
you know, better than I played, you know, when I'm at my best, I
feel like I'm the best that's played.
I brought the game up to a different level, but why aren't
I feeling better about it? So I felt like something was
missing in my life. It wasn't the tennis part.

(01:46):
So because of that other part, probably ultimately my tennis
was her. You wrote in your book.
For anyone who's been on the top, once you've lost it,
everything spirals out of control and it's difficult to
find your way back. Explain that.
Well, you know, some of this is you rely on instinct and some of
it is luck and some of it is a lot of hard work.

(02:07):
But at the same time, you work for many years to maintain that
edge. And any athlete will tell you
that you don't want to lose it once you get there because
you've spent years, you know, with every part of the sport,
the mental part, the preparation, the intensity, the
playing, all that to come to a point where you've got an edge.

(02:28):
And I don't think I was ever counted out on my last
Wimbledon. I got to the semis.
I played Sampras in the semis ofthe Open when I was 31.
I thought to myself, all right, I got, I got this.
You know, he's 19 now. He was turns out he's a turned
out to be a pretty good player and Agassi in the final.
Now I could have lost him I guess too, because I lost him in

(02:49):
Wimbledon, but that seemed like it was going to happen and it
didn't. So it's.
I wish I knew the answer to these.
The end of your tennis career per SE was also basically the
end of your marriage. And you wrote, I felt as though
the bottom had dropped out of the world.

(03:11):
How would you describe the feeling?
Not only was I losing a part of my identity, which was tennis I
believe, or so I thought, it turns out I'm still obviously a
lot more involved than I thoughtI would be at the time.
What I had basically thought I was stopping for in a way was so

(03:31):
that allow my ex-wife to sort ofthe opportunity to go out and do
her thing and then take care of the kids, which I thought, hey,
that's not a bad thing, they're young and that would be a good
thing. So then to have sort of neither
one of those in a way like the end of the marriage and the
career that was, you know, that was a lot to handle, that seemed
a bit overwhelming. Do you remember why you were

(03:53):
crying on the changeovers in Paris?
It just was too. I did.
I shouldn't have been on the court.
I felt like I was sort of obligated to sort of finish.
I mean, I guess I didn't have to.
I guess I was lucky in a way that they are.
I played with my brother. So I, you know, I had some
support system. Patrick was with me.
Davis Cup meant a lot to me around that time because I was

(04:16):
around people, They're supporting me and my kids were
there and so I was least gettingby by the skin of my teeth.
With regards to Patrick specifically, you said what
saved my life in Paris was the presence of Patrick.
What do you mean save your life?Having Patrick playing double S
and just being around him was very was very helpful to get me

(04:39):
through. You know, I had some good strong
support. I was with Andre.
I remember the week before DavisCup and he was trying to help me
through things and the team and Davis Cup.
That meant a lot. You know, Pete was there and he
said he loved me, you know, and on the when we won the double so
that you know that I'm sure thatI'm I think it's safe to say
that that's the only time he's ever said that to another player

(05:01):
on a tennis court. I love you.
I love you man, but that manics a lot to me.
He probably won't even admit he said it.
Now hopefully he will. But that was, you know, just
having your sort of tennis family around at that time was
was very important. One quick thing before you
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(05:22):
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