We speak to Eurosport's brand new expert, the legendary John McEnroe.
What does joining Eurosport mean to you?
When I’m at my hotel room when I’m not on the tennis court I always turn on Eurosport. So I’m familiar with it and familiar that they cover a lot of the tennis because when I’m in Europe to play senior events, I see other tournaments being covered on Eurosport. I know Eurosport are very big into tennis.
Watch EVERY MATCH live with Eurosport Player
The French Open is live on Eurosport
Years ago, many, many years ago, I worked briefly with Eurosport and we worked in Hannover because I wanted to see if that was actually a place that would really have a tennis event [laughs]! I found out they did. But I lost touch with working with Eurosport for a while so now it’s nice for me to be part of it again. For me as a New Yorker, I see tennis doing better and being more popular in Europe. So from that standpoint it’s nice to be part of a team that prioritises tennis higher.
You have covered the French Open with American broadcasters in the past. Do you think working with a more European team will make it different?
No, I’ve been around a long enough time to know what it’s like to be on different surfaces. I just think there’s more coverage in general. It’s sort of like when we have the US Open and they’re covering it on ESPN all day and night, that’s similar with Eurosport.
There’s a lot of different languages which is new for me… I have a tough enough time speaking English… so I guess I won’t be on all the networks on Eurosport. But it’s still gonna be fine.
To me when you’re in an event this big it’s good to be busy and be around, and just catch up with people. I think this allows me more of a chance to do that.
You will be part of a great group of talent: Mats (Wilander), Barbara (Schett), Chrissie (Evert), (Henri) Leconte.
You’ve got a lot of crazy characters… so I think maybe I’ll fit right in…
Obviously some of the players like Mats and Chrissie have had unbelievable success at the French and others - like me and Henri – were maybe more crazy than successful…although we had some success. I think it’s good to have different perspectives - men and women.
Paris is an incredible city. It’s a beautiful city, arguably the most beautiful city in the world, so a pretty good place to spend a couple of weeks.
What do Paris and the French Open mean to you? You had one of the toughest defeats there in the 1984 final with Ivan Lendl. Was it something that changed your perspective about the French Open?
Well, it was something that changed my perspective about myself, not so much about the French Open. There was a period of time in the beginning of my career when I didn’t even play the French Open, even though when I was younger my most successful surface was clay. I won the French juniors in 1977 and right after that I had this big success in Wimbledon. So I have a good history of clay. But early on when these surfaces were changing and my game was changing I didn’t spend as much time trying to focus on the events of the clay courts leading up to, and then Roland Garros and eventually it became a big priority to me.
Certainly the most difficult loss I ever had was the loss to Lendl … after that I felt like I would have more chances to win it, but life and other things - like old age - and other things … got in the way and I never came close to winning it again.
Clay was your favourite surface when you were young. Was it more difficult to win because of your game style?
It’s always more difficult on a surface where you can’t stop and start as quickly. The game where you’re aggressive and you need to move quickly, against great players who hit great passing shots, it’s difficult to do that [on clay], especially when you’re trying to attack and serve and volley so the odds of winning consistently on that surface are much more difficult. That’s why I felt that for two or three years I could have and should have won to show that you can win that way. But I didn’t. So that’s disappointing.
Do you miss your game, great volleys, in today’s game?
I’d like to see players play with more variety; a lot of the players play the same way. Athletically, they’re incredible, and the game is a lot faster than it used to be, so it’s a different type of strategy. It’s a different preparation and a very different game.
The best [game] for me would be somewhere in the middle: you don’t want to see it where it looks like it’s in slow motion and you don’t want to see everyone just hitting the ball from the baseline. It depends on who you ask. In the future you’ll see some more changes.
I don’t know what they’ll be but the French Open for example is not that much different than Wimbledon now, which is crazy.
There is one week to go before the French Open. With Rafa Nadal not at his best, Novak Djokovic impressive, Roger Federer doing finals on clay, Andy Murray winning titles - are we facing the most uncertain and maybe exciting French Open of the last few years?
I think it’s potentially going to be historic. If Novak wins he has a chance to go all the way and win the Grand Slams. Every time that that has happened or people have come close - like Roger, Rafa and they have a chance to win all of them, it makes it much more exciting.
So that’s the part that’s the most interesting [for me] right now.
When you’ve won nine times out of ten, sooner or later it catches up to you. It looks like it’s caught up to Rafa, but to me I would be very surprised personally if it wasn’t one of those people that won the tournament.
We will wait and see what happens in terms of the draw and the seeding, that makes it more interesting to see where people are because at the moment Rafa would have to play Roger or Novak in the quarter finals.
That seems almost crazy so that opens the door for someone else, maybe someone that’s unexpected, to make a big run so I think that that’s where the opportunity is for someone like Andy Murray if he’s playing with confidence.
Roger obviously has a history. It’s more difficult when you get older to go all the way - especially on clay. So I think the door is open for someone like Andy Murray or Nishikori. Or someone that’s positioned themselves to go deep more than in any of the past years when you had Novak on one side and Rafa and maybe you could get to the quarters or semis but it just seemed almost impossible to get past that.
What’s going on with Rafa?
Apparently, he’s a human being. If you touch him he can feel pain and there’s red inside his skin - like blood or something!
I think it makes you realise how high his level was for so long in that when you see him in sort of like a mortal, human level that you think, ‘what is wrong with this guy?’.
And maybe something is wrong. I’m not sure. He’s not the same player. But I’m guessing that he’s going to be much tougher to beat in best of five. It’s one thing to beat him on one set.
To me, I don’t know if he cares a whole lot. I mean he cares, but not to the extent he would care about trying to save this French Open because it could put him back to where people think he should be or where he thinks he is. It gets to the point that fans are gonna get behind him - whereas they always want to see someone else win because he always wins everything!
Novak has been impressive, but is he focused enough to win?
It seems like he is inhuman; a machine that is unbeatable. Best of all, it’s hard to see him being beaten. The only guy that I could see beat him is Rafa or possibly some big guy who’s having some sort of day; someone like Isner. You know, if some of these big servers do something crazy. But even that, I don’t see it [happening] over best of five. That’s the only possibility that he could lose.
Do you think that the pressure to get his first French Open could be a help or could it be…?
If anything it will hurt him a little bit. But he’s so good that it probably won’t matter, he’s so well prepared. But it’s possible that it’s going to hurt him because of course he’s going to feel like ‘now I should win this’. There’s no question about it.
He’s worked all these years and he’s had a couple of very good chances, but it almost feels like it’s pre-ordained.
Rafa, Novak and maybe someone else for the title?
I don’t really see maybe someone else. I see Rafa, Novak but of course what I love about sports and what I like about coming to tournaments like these is that you don’t know for sure, so it would be nice in a way to see someone that you felt like made that step, that break.
Last question, regarding your generation, there was Jimmy Connors and there was Mats Wilander. You pushed each other. Do you think you can compare to today’s generation of players?
Well, the comparison would be - if I was to compare - Nadal and Federer were like Borg and Connors. I was like Djokovic, because I was trying to get the respect of Borg and Connors, (to break in to that group) and to try to be as great as these two players were and be on the same level.
It was difficult because they wanted to beat you and win everything and I felt like I had to work very hard and I never had as many majors as they did. But I felt like I earned their respect and at least pushed them to higher levels.
I think Novak has done the same thing. You know we’re not the same players: he’s probably better than I was, but he’s pushed them to become better players which has made him a better player. I think he’s got their respect.
Murray would be similar to Ivan, except that Ivan became one of the greatest players ever and won eight major titles. Andy has won a couple majors but he still hasn’t made the next one, so you know he’s still trying to get up there the way Lendl did and he’s the fourth guy.
Who would Mats be?
Mats would be, like the next guy, sort of like the next generation player, because he was a little younger. But he was an incredible player. He was like with Becker and Edberg and Agassi! He was the toughest guy mentally I ever played.
John McEnroe is working for Eurosport during the French Open at Roland Garros. You can follow all the action live on Eurosport , with Eurosport Player showing all 15 courts.
source:eurosport