How Good Was John McEnroe Actually?

How Good Was John McEnroe Actually?
John was a player of great skill and finesse, with the best volleying touch in tennis history. His subtle nuances at net, which were only a sliver of his vast arsenal of shots, stood in stark contrast to his loud outbursts between the lines, which frequently overshadowed the depth of his game.
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In this video we go over
#johnmcenroe #mcenroe #tennis

[@ccohen1965]

John had the most beautiful game I have ever seen. He may not have won as many slams as some other players, but if you want to watch a pure artist at work, he is the one to watch.

[@fundhund62]

To be fair, he played in a much tougher era than today, where 98% of players are one-dimensional baseline robots. Back then, the majority of tennis professionals had complete games. That's unthinkable today.

[@ccohen1965]

@@fundhund62 Agreed and it was a VERY different game with wood racquets.

[@chris10hi]

AGREED, A TRUE GENIUS, NOT A NUMBER GUY. HE WAS AN ARTIST, THAT LASTER A SHORT TIME.

[@roberthale2268]

Mac was/is a tennis genius. It's too bad the the United States can't produce a dominant player like Mac these days. Even in his later years on the Senior circuit, Mac was tearing up younger players. It takes a genius to do this.

[@Perebynis]

Absolutely. Mac raised the bar on the senior´s tour where he won another twenty-something titles. Nowadays the level of tennis on the ex-pro´s tournaments is really high and I have no doubt that this is due to Mac´s efforts there. - It´s strange that the US failed of producing a dominant follow-up to the Sampras and Agassi era, but what´s even stranger (from a german tennis fan´s point of view here) is that the US produce female tennis talents over and over, one better than the other. That reservoir really seems inexhaustible. But what happened on the male´s side?

[@chocolatetownforever7537]

Its embarrassing that the US cant develop a few men, capable of winning slams. While I realize tennis isnt as huge of a sport anymore here, but still. Im just thankful I grew up in the 90s, which in my opinion, is the greatest era for American tennis. Im just kind of shocked that era dropped off SO much after Roddick. Its a shame.

[@nocturne311]

@@chocolatetownforever7537Let’s see where Ben Shelton’s career goes. He’s only 21.

[@vinylrulesok8470]

My favourite player hands down. Watching him play was always entertaining and at his best he was untouchable.

[@blucat4]

Same here. John was the reason I started playing tennis.

[@DjangoThunders]

Mac was the Jimi Hendrix of tennis, an improvisational artist of the highest order. He bridged the gap from the wood racket era to modern fiber rackets. When people were able to really bash the ball from the baseline, he never changed his game. I am so happy to have grown up in the 70's and 80's. Everything was better, the music, the sports and the drugs.

[@silverman169]

It's amazing and funny how such a fiery personality can have such a beautiful graceful playing style.

[@rwruger01]

"Simultaneously" AND "at the same time"...wow!

[@axelsohn1454]

McEnroe was not only a great tennis player, he was a great tennis analyst as a sportscaster. He made sport more interesting than it otherwise was.

[@chocolatetownforever7537]

Agreed. Maybe yelling and swearing isnt the best behavior, but it made tennis more interesting. Its also a huge reason that Mac got a lot of those big sponsorships in the 80s, because even people who didnt watch tennis often, knew about John McEnroe. He helped the sport become huge in America.

[@robcarter55]

My favourite player of all time and probably the best doubles player ever which is even more appreciated I think by club level competition players who play mostly doubles. I think the singles game changed and left him behind frankly but only at the very top. I thought he could have played doubles a lot longer than he did and still won. Even in the seniors tour he had lost nothing. I had the pleasure of watching at the Royal Albert hall.

[@RogerlCrosby]

From his prime McEnroe was definitely the most exciting player to watch and is my favorite player of all time. Got to see Mac in person during an exhibition match in Albuquerque New Mexico in 1986 vs Mats wilander

[@jerseyneil1]

McEnroe was great when Borg was playing, they pushed each other. Beating Borg at Wimbledon and the US Open was the highlight of his career. Although he won several grand slam titles after Borg's retirement, McEnroe never played at the same high level consistently often losing to Connors, Lendl, Edberg, etc.

[@juliomamani7560]

John McEnroe a pesar de los años sigue siendo una de las pocas estrella mundiales del tenis que esta presente y activo, felicitaciones!!

[@zcomme]

I was a unconditionnal fan of Borg, but there was and still is only one Big Mac!! Magic touch, unique style, great new yorker behavior!

[@jonrobles1468]

He was amazing in his prime. I got to see him play Guillermo Vilas in an exhibition in Fresno in 1983. At the time, Vilas was still a top 10 player on the circuit and McEnroe manhandled him. Shocking that the 1984 U.S. Open would be the last Grand Slam singles title he would win. To be #1 in both singles AND doubles at the same time is something that will never be duplicated. In fact, only a handful of men's players since then have been in the top 10 in both disciplines at the same time, most recently Jack Sock in 2017 (#8 in singles, #9 in doubles).

[@carlosmagnus717]

NATURAL TALENT, PERSONALITY AND GENIUSITY. Those are the three characteristics that define his game, and that have made him the most brilliant and spectacular player I have ever seen. There are two seasons, just when he changes the wooden racket for the graphite one, specifically years 83 and 84, when we find an absolutely sublime Mcenroe in terms of play and results, however, as we say in my country, "the good perfume is served in a small bottle", and his game based on inspiration has its weak point in consistency, so his results today may seem little, if we compare him with today's players (77 ATP tournaments and 7 Grand Slam Tournaments). However, the spectacle that his game gave is far superior to that of any of the current players, even though they can win 20 or 30 Grand Slams. It is not the quantity but the quality, in other words, it's not the quantity of victories but the "way of producing them" and in this aspect John Mcenroe was and is the reference. There has only been one player who comes close to him, his name is ROGER FEDERER.

[@a.nacap1593]

I agree with 99.9% of what you wrote , i think Sampras has surpassed him

[@carseye1219]

He was a unique talent. His '84 year was off the charts. But he was never quite the same after the retiring of Borg, and his own sabbatical. Still, it's almost shocking to think the '84 US Open was his last Slam because he still played some great tennis after that. Trivia question: How many Slam titles did he win in Nike clothes? Answer: Zero. While we think of Mac as the first great Nike player, he was still wearing Sergio Tacchini clothes in '84.

[@donfarmerjr3371]

I was there , he was fantastic. I was a division, 1 college player when he was. He was light years ahead of almost everybody else.

[@davidcardano963]

A magician by ordinary standards

[@AndrewLane-pm2ro]

My favourite tennis player of all time. Poetry in motion.

[@elmoblatch9787]

The pure hand-eye coordination was astounding. I suspect it still is pretty good.

[@ljjackson7106]

Cannot get enough of McEnroe!!!!

[@michaelsheedy]

He is still a great player with that lefty serve to the add court that pulls the returner off the court. Up to recently, he won senior pro tournaments against players much younger.

[@Skiiiiiifreeeeeee]

if i'm not mistaken his forehand grip was continental, not eastern.

[@davidcardano963]

It said that and on both sides.

[@smftrsddvjiou6443]

yes, they showed an almost semi western, however I think he played smth in between contintel and eastern (like me, however not because of Mac)

[@us-Bahn]

It’s been analyzed as a quarter-Asian, neo-continental, transatlantic inverted hyper-occidental grip.

[@Dianaking-e4v]

He’s a GD legend! There’s no one like him, and never will be. He’s a true champion and very loved for sure. Shia’s portrayal was spot on! I don’t think they could’ve chose a better actor to play that role. I know Shia has his demons, but is still an amazing actor. I think we can all agree to that.

[@carterwilson4605]

You say that he lost three matches in 84, and then you go on and say that he only lost a Davis Cup match at the end of the year in 1984. Unfortunately, this video also needs quite a bit of work.

[@antonboludo8886]

Very good! Subtle Artisty in every shot, like Hana Mandlikova!

[@TTBoy22-ij6th]

She is underrated, winning five majors during the Evert & Navratalova era was impressive.

[@antonboludo8886]

Yes, she had very subtle shots.@@TTBoy22-ij6th

[@33COOLStreet]

Did anyone else spot Shia LaBeouf at 5:34 mins. As regards to fitness, McEnroe was the first to admit he wasn't among the fittest and strongest players in the game. He's quoted as saying that he kept fit by playing doubles. The reason he could keep up with guys like Connors was that he tried to make the opponent do most of the running. He kept baseline rallies as short as possible. Some good footage in the video apart from Shia's sneak appearance !

[@badgirlz88]

"Simultaneously at the same time"... Really?

[@tsc6454]

The change in racquet technology has made McEnroe's game irrelevant. He couldn't pay his game today which had lead to the almost total decrease in tennis popularity and the rise of Pickleball. Tennis used to be a chess match where you had to think your way around the court now its all power.....a checkers game. Sad to see the demise of what was the most popular games in America in the '70s and early '80s.

[@smftrsddvjiou6443]

So true. The game was so different back then. So much more interesting.

[@TTBoy22-ij6th]

It was fun watching base liners take on serve volleyers. Borg & Conners vs McEnroe, Agassi vs Sampras & Rafter and Wilander & Lendl vs Becker & Edberg etc. Tennis got popular in Europe so it's decline in the US didn't matter financially but it's very repetitive now.

[@blucat4]

If you think pickleball will overtake tennis you are dreaming. 🙄

[@Siloguy]

Ironically the graphite racquet that contributed to his great 84 season also ended his dominance as players started to hit with more power and spin and his wooden racquet based ground strokes couldn't cope.

[@JoshDragon18]

What's going on with the scaling of Peter Fleming and Michael Stich? It looks weird. Also Stich's name is prounced "shteek." Not "stich."

[@robertjones8598]

Mac was a great player, no doubt. I emulated his style as much as one could and loved watching his matches. His 1984 season was incredible and I was able to see him live at the USO that year. But for all of his unique talent and relatively short peak, he is largely overrated as a player and even for his talent. His uniqueness of style has something to do with it. He had great feel and touch, but he also went for the impossible a lot and when you do that you make some wow shots. I saw him miss volleys, lots of them, where I felt he could have stuck the thing rather than try and make a deft dropper that wasn’t needed. Yes, he was very talented. I just get sick of hearing people state he was the most talented. It’s ridiculous. I was a big fan, playing in college and copying this guy’s game so not coming from a hater viewpoint here.

[@shoahkhan5670]

If you take both his singles and doubles, he's the best... And if you add to that his entertainment value, it's almost unparalleled.

[@carterwilson4605]

You keep incorrectly saying that he won games over and over again. He didn't win games. He won matches.

[@pontusschroder8361]

I liked the video. Fantastic to see a video like this for free. You only saw errors?

[@marton8288]

i would argue that he, in fact, won some games

[@carterwilson4605]

@@marton8288 it depends on the context. The speaker was referring to games, however, when he clearly was talking about matches against other players. Match stats form the basis for career statistics and analysis. By comparison, winning or losing individual games is relatively unimportant.

[@marton8288]

@@carterwilson4605 seems like being pedantic and having no sense of sarcasm both go hand in hand

[@andrewhylton8712]

He was the best player of all time

[@tino6846]

No he wasn’t 😂

[@KennethElliot-xv4rb]

Nonsense. Not even in the top ten

[@mddistribution30]

His match record in 1984 of 83 and 3 is still the best calendar match record in the Open era. Not even Fed, Nadal or Djoko have bettered that!

[@tsc6454]

Mac used a continental grip not an eastern forehand

[@Sealdrop]

murygoat

[@otaviosantos7194]

Looks like his forehand strike is made using continental grip insted of eastern.

[@raghumanda2tanush496]

Federer Djokovic nadal sampras borg laver connors ivan Lendl and McEnroe are goats for me in tennis 🎾.

[@maljohnson2660]

He used a continental forehand grip, not eastern. He used that one grip for everything.

[@garyproffitt5941]

I cannot be serious spoil brat and he though the racket. Very intelligent John McEnroe and save the day.

[@mikefranke4487]

McEnroe is the most talented Tennis Player ever

[@tino6846]

No he wasn’t 😂

[@63002]

Most talented ever.

[@tino6846]

No he wasn’t 😂

[@reptilezsweden]

"... simultaneously at the same time."

[@magnum9229]

GOAT

[@SergFilippenko]

Come on guys… Mark Woodford??? Mark was a kid when John played… it was Peter Fleming!

[@darinm209]

Either Mac or Stefan Edberg was the best volleyer ever (very close between the 2), galaxys Ahead in volleying skill from all the current players, even miles ahead of Federer and Sampras at the net.

[@blucat4]

Pat Cash, Pat Rafter, want to talk to you.

[@darinm209]

@blucat4 they both volleyed great too...good for 3 and 4 of all time.

[@stevel.2759]

Aced everybody off the Court. Volleys on the rise. Everythingon the rise

[@chocolatetownforever7537]

I know John was still successful with more modern equipment, but had tennis stayed with wood, or had he came around earlier, theres no telling how many slams he would have won. Trying to pass him enough to win against Mac when hes coming into the net 50 or 60 times, with wood? Good luck. John McEnroe was still one of the all time greats, but NOBODY was hurt more by racquet technology than him.

[@Tom-c7p1h]

He had the ability to seemingly lose his mind on an umpires call, then gather himself and play on. Not quite fair to the other player, but they could have done it also.

[@lawrence1318]

His volleys were overrated. When you come to the net as often as he did, you're bound to hit a lot of good stop volleys simply by virtue of the sheer number of times you're hitting at the net. It's simply a percentage thing. But he fluffed a hell of a lot of volleys.

[@blucat4]

What are these graphics? Terrible! But I like a video of John McEnroe so I gave you a thumbs up.

[@paulhefner2813]

mcenroe was nothing special. he has some good highlights but i remember his play. it was 70-30. 70 percent excellent and 30 percent erratic. good enough to win majors and one excellent year, but not even close to the bug three.

[@a.k.4486]

The best!

[@jasoncowell5133]

How big is the universe?

[@sayresrudy2644]

(1) “simultaneously at the same time” = painful. (2) his 1984 season was as great as any year of any other player. (3) “the best doubles team in history is John McEnroe and his partner,” old joke goes. (4) it’s a myth that his weird service motion “helped him disguise his target.” (5) he was NOT fit and didn’t practice (where did you get your info?!). but he had what you didn’t mention: stunning balance. 6. nice footage, thx.

[@Carlos27thFS]

7. 82-3 match record. McEnroe lost 3 matches not games.

[@sayresrudy2644]

@@Carlos27thFS thank you!

[@PeterBrown-mz4nv]

Equals redundancy.

[@craigallday1236]

He didn’t have a coach and trained bare minimum 😂

[@MrJayb76]

McEnroe a legend? YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!

[@gpipeline]

Several players were better: Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Sampras, Borg, Connors, Lendl, Agassi, and Laver just to name a few.

[@blucat4]

And guess what? None of them played doubles. Mac was also #1 in doubles, he'd play both events in tournaments. So overall he was the best.

[@KennethElliot-xv4rb]

He would have been destroyed by Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

[@markburnham7512]

I could never get past his emotional immaturity. He just seemed like a spoiled baby who never learned any self-disclipline. But I admit he was way ahead of his time. These days we realise that the end justifies the means and win at all cost is the goal and personal bwhavior does not matter a lick.

[@theroadrunnerjarhead4109]

McEnroe was a great tennis player but he was a wacko.

[@timmyg44]

That's not Mark Woodford

[@eshwarmahadevan9276]

second

[@drjanoshorvath]

Should have inviolved how long he stayed on the tour playing the likes of lendl sampras agassi chang becker

[@michaelsheedy]

Fritz is a great player, but still can't figure out what his strategy is other than trying to win from the base line. Seldom comes to net unless short shot brings him there. Winning from baseline doesn't work with all players.

[@aguydvid1370]

first

[@JustSupposin1]

Gimbo was better and more entertaining

[@dadsfreetimeclassicgaming1220]

Need to do some women

[@Rajinikanthan-M0]

How good....? John McEnroe was too good...

[@graymcmic1419]

Matches, not Games

[@fritzthecat8830]

What a question? Still the best!