John McEnroe Gets His Revenge

“It gave us both plausible deniability,” he said.

Even his mother landed in the line of fire sometimes. He was still living at home when he won his first U.S. Open, sleeping in his childhood bedroom each night, eating his mother’s food, which he would impolitely order her to provide at a specific time before his matches.

Fed up with his behavior, she asked him why he couldn’t behave more like his friend Peter Rennert, the tour pro who was his constant sidekick.

“That made me feel like I was an inch tall,” McEnroe said.

Age has mellowed him, though not entirely. His second marriage, 25 years and counting, to Patty Smyth, the lead singer of the rock band Scandal (“I am the warrior….”) and six children have given him some perspective, as well as a few talking-tos when he gets out of line.

But when he hears people saying his serve-and-volley game would not have a prayer against the likes of Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer, his voice rises to resemble that unmistakable ranting of the man who made chair umpires lives deeply unpleasant.

Dial back time to the peak of his powers, put him on a grass court at maximum intensity, and McEnroe is comfortable in his belief that every so often he could have beaten the modern greats.

“I would have gotten under the skin and made them think,” he said. “Would not have had a winning record, but I would have gotten to them a few times.”

Sounds plausible. In his own way, McEnroe has gotten to all of us — and still does.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/sports/tennis/john-mcenroe-us-open.html