Official John McEnroe Thread

[don_budge]

Bjorn Borg speaks...

Correct. My balls seemed to travel to him in slow motion and actually felt slower than usual coming off my racket. Disconcerting! He was in slow motion hitting and then his ball was on top of you like a laser.

Bjorn is talking about the very same thing you guys are. There must be something concrete to the mystique of Mac.

[biodegradableeric1979]

If it wasn't for John McEnroe the game of tennis would ****ing suck. Please excuse my French!

[johnyandell]

I'd be lying if I didn't say that Mac versus Borg or Jimmy or Lendl in a Slam final wasn't the most dramatic and entertaining tennis I have personally watched.

[maxply]

^most definitely^
Finals....semis, and really anytime that cast of characters faced off. Contrasting styles, intensity, gutsy brand of high percentage tennis. Miss those duels. Growing up as a tennis player... there are a few i will never forget:

Mac/vitas, 79 us open final, full of fun, varied, attacking tennis;
Mac/borg, 80 and 81 wimbledon and us open finals, and indoors at the Masters in The Garden;
Mac/jimmy 82 wimbledon final, and especially their 84 us open semifinal five set thriller....7-5 in the fifth;
Mac/Lendl 84 roland, and 84 us open final;
Mac/boris davis cup in Connecticut, mac over becker in an early round at the Aus Open, i think 1991;
Mac/mats davis cup in st. Louis, wood vs early graphite;
Doubles: Mac and fleming in general...mac with stich 1992 Wimbledon;
Mac with pete vs Suisse, davis cup final in Fort Worth.

I know Mac is a controversial figure, but even his critics can agree to be thankful he brought the game to billions. More importantly, thanks and applause for his entertaining, brilliant tennis.

[don_budge]

John McEnroe versus Björn Borg…1980 U. S. Open Finals

^most definitely^
Finals....semis, and really anytime that cast of characters faced off. Contrasting styles, intensity, gutsy brand of high percentage tennis. Miss those duels. Growing up as a tennis player... there are a few i will never forget:

Mac/vitas, 79 us open final, full of fun, varied, attacking tennis;
Mac/borg, 80 and 81 wimbledon and us open finals, and indoors at the Masters in The Garden;
Mac/jimmy 82 wimbledon final, and especially their 84 us open semifinal five set thriller....7-5 in the fifth;
Mac/Lendl 84 roland, and 84 us open final;
Mac/boris davis cup in Connecticut, mac over becker in an early round at the Aus Open, i think 1991;
Mac/mats davis cup in st. Louis, wood vs early graphite;
Doubles: Mac and fleming in general...mac with stich 1992 Wimbledon;
Mac with pete vs Suisse, davis cup final in Fort Worth.

I know Mac is a controversial figure, but even his critics can agree to be thankful he brought the game to billions. More importantly, thanks and applause for his entertaining, brilliant tennis.

Hello mr. maxply. Great to hear that someone out there appreciates "real" tennis. The Great John McEnroe. Yeah…what else does one need to say.

Well it just so happens that I love to write about the virtues of Johnny Bad Boy. I know…it makes the Church Lady cringe. Take a look at this thread maxply. Take a look at the match itself. One of the greatest matches of all time. McEnroe had played a five set semifinal against Jimmy Connors (winning 7-6 in the fifth) the day before and he had lost in five sets in the doubles final with Peter Fleming against Stan Smith and Bob Lutz…I believe it was.

Here's the match…The 1980 U. S. Open Finals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZKxKWfzUic

Here's the thread…I hope that you enjoy it.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=2733&highlight=transcript+john+mcenroe+jiminy+glick

Here's a sample from the thread…

Thanks for listening and following my train of thought. I know that in the beginning you were a bit leery of my message regarding the classic game versus the modern game. But I sense an open mind now.

I never say that I am right in anything that I present on the forum...I only write my case and let the chips fall where they may. There are some on this forum that think this is a debate or certain opinions can be shouted down...and by that I mean all topics need to be agreed or disagreed upon. I never feel that way...and after saying that I will say this.

For once I will say this...I AM RIGHT. And I mean it and I am not shy saying it. I don't need a second opinion. This question about the relative merits regarding the game of classic tennis versus the modern game is not one of personal feelings...it is only about the facts.

The facts are of course obfuscated to the maximum. Number one...it has been a long time and number two any historians of the game from here on out are only going to go back to this point in time for their source of tennis history. They lack the experience and first hand knowledge. Once again the powers that be win. He who wins writes the history.

When watching this match you get a real sensation about how the game had EVOLVED up to 1980. The oversized equipment had already been introduced but the very top echelon wasn't having anything to do with it. They looked at it with disdain and viewed anybody playing with it as a cheater. The game that McEnroe and Borg played on this glorious afternoon at Flushing Meadows was a brilliant display of tennis by two tough and gritty combatants with traditional wooden racquets. The likes of their rivalry and the polar aspects of the whole scenario will never again be matched...that is my opinion.

It's funny how the modern junior development coaches and the certified lot are so dead certain that the current game is the best there ever was and this is what I mean about the victor writing the history book. The current game is dead in the water compared to the classic. It will have to be retooled or reengineered for more "evolution" to take place. The classic game was a living thing and all of the champions were connected as if by some thread of Chromosomal DNA from the life of the game. The game transcended everyone...no one person was bigger that it.

But now...sadly there is a disconnect and a refusal to acknowledge something so fundamental as right and wrong. But tennis always serves as a metaphor for life as the news media and the government and the corporations lead us astray by the careful manipulation of information...much as the tennis world has done. Leading us to slaughter...as 10splayer suggested I was leading my students. Even though he has never personally witnessed on of my tennis lessons. Just blah, blah, blah. We will see what the carnage will look like in the end...I have seen it. It isn't pretty.

I know everyone would like to see this era dead and buried. There are some really strange ideas why it should be so. But basically it comes down to one over riding principle and that is one of greed. It is the greed in everyone's heart that leads them to believe that they are a superior being to those of our past. It is some old guy playing with a Babolat tennis racquet the size of a snow shoe that clings to an illusion that he is playing good tennis. It is the greed of the machine that cares not a twit for words like integrity. The only word that the machine understands is profit. Just as our government is only concerned with our "national interests" and not the "will of the American people"...an expression they trot out when they are about to do something in our national interests that is contrary to the will of the American people.

Tennis interest was at an all time high in 1980. The McEnroe and Borg rivalry was only swelling to a crest. It had not yet peaked...but Borg wasn't having anything to do with it. Perhaps Johan Kriek was using some kind of oversized racquet in his semi and he had a close brush with someone that he knew he should dispatch routinely. There were more peaks to come. Trust me the game would have continued to evolve. If you can imagine all of the best tennis players since this glorious afternoon striving to out do these two. Can you imagine them all with wooden racquets and what glorious tennis that they would have produced. Can you imagine for example Pete Sampras versus Andre Agassi with wooden racquets? Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg with wooden racquets? The current crop of pretenders with wooden racquets? I don't know...I am only trying to connect the dots. It isn't the player's fault by the way.

I am only a student of the game. Part of my job as a tennis coach is to connect the dots. You know of my paradigm and it's deep and connected roots to traditional and classic tennis. You know how there is this modern element on this forum that from time to time makes some rather rude and otherwise unintelligent or illogical comment without backing any of the discourse with facts. It is only the sound of those that the machine views as useful idiots. Most everyone qualifies for this status...it takes an almost nonexistent quality to think outside of the box these days. The brainwashing has been insidious and unrelenting. Like society as a whole...tennis has been dumbed down. It's only a sign of the times.

Every point in this epic was a masterpiece. That is not to say there weren't mistakes and mishits. But taken as a whole the match must nearly be described point by point. I had to watch the match several times to come up with the words to describe the action. The points were like single brushstrokes that make up a great masterpiece. It reminded me of the moment only a couple of months ago when I stood at the very top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris looking down at that classic and old traditional city in Europe. Each building from that height looked like a single brush stroke and put them all together you had the wonderful visual whole that makes up the city of Paris. Like a beautiful painting every single brush stroke adds up to make up the whole.

The individual buildings on the ground were masterpieces of architecture as well. You walk along the streets admiring the craftsmanship and beauty from the ground level in the micro view as opposed to the macro view from the top of the Eiffel tower.

The same as this match. Such an intricate tapestry of tennis and all of its nuances. The variety of strokes...the variety of tactics. The infinite number of possibilities...permutations and combinations. Then there is the complexity of the players and their emotions and their tactical acumen and their individual interpretation of THE GAME. THE GAME OF TENNIS as it was meant to be played.

In tennis, in art and in life there is a balance. Even the universe is somehow balanced although theoretically. Equal parts positive and negative. Perhaps the human race has an equal balance as well...the summation of all of our actions and intents equal parts good and evil. But one thing is very clear to me and there is absolutely no way around it because in this very case for once and for all I am right...the game of tennis has been compromised by the actions of the very human hands that invented it. That precious balance that the game had and endured for so many years was compromised by an overabundance of speed in the game. It's simple. What was lost was tennis that was played like on this September afternoon between the last of the great rivalries in tennis...John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.

[biodegradableeric1979]

McEnroes commentary makes the game of tennis worth watching.