Irish-American Tennis Great, John McEnroe

He absolutely dominated professional tennis from 1981 to 1984. He’s the Irishman known for his finesse and clean, smooth strokes on the tennis court but he would often pack his temper. He has picked up many nicknames along the way including Johnny, Johnny Mac, McBrat and even SuperBrat. So you could suppose there might be a hint of truth about those Irish temper stories. In which case, you may not be surprised to know that tennis super star, John McEnroe’s Irish paternal grandfather was from the Irish village of Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan. You might even have heard the song named after that village entitled “Come Back Paddy Reilly To Ballyjamesduff“. And McEnroe’s very own grandmother was from the lovely County Westmeath.

The future tennis great, John Patrick McEnroe Jr. was born February 16, 1959 in Wiesbaden, West Germany, to American parents, John Patrick McEnroe and his beautiful wife Kay Tresham. McEnroe’s father was at the time in Germany stationed with the United States Air Force (USAF), later becoming an advertising agent and back in the U.S. he eventually made partner in the prestigious Manhattan law firm Paul, Weiss. The McEnroe family grew to include include John’s two younger brothers Mark (born 1964) and former professional tennis player Patrick (born 1966). John Sr. had also managed his son John during the early stages of his professional tennis career.

John Jr. grew up in and around New York, attending Trinity High School on the island of Manhattan and graduating in 1977. That same year, McEnroe started his career as an 18-year-old amateur, taking home both the Junior singles and mixed doubles titles at the French Open.

It was in 1978 that people started to recognize McEnroe as someone special and in that same year he was asked to deliver a Stanford Commencement speech; the first athlete to do so. He went on to lead Stanford both in the NCAA tennis team championship along with the individual title. McEnroe made the decision to leave Stanford just before graduation in order to turn professional, and thus began one of the most successful tennis playing careers ever.

The Davis Cup

It had been six long years since America last won a Davis Cup and it wasn’t until 1978 that the spry 20 year old John McEnroe stepped onto the court at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California and brought the win home for his team.

After that legendary win, McEnroe continued to be a mainstay of U.S. Davis Cup teams for the next 14 years, and took part of title-winning teams in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, and 1992.

McEnroe was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, as well as maintaining his confrontational and humorous on-court behavior. The media absolutely loathed and loved this guy and the crowds would roar with applause and laughter. On television, McEnroe came across as a true underdog. And because he was so superb on the court his name quickly became aligned with tennis legend.

McEnroe went on to attain the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, finally reaching a career high with 77 singles and 78 doubles titles – to this day McEnroe retains the highest men’s combined total of the Tennis Open Era. He won a total of seven Grand Slam singles titles, four at the US Open and three at Wimbledon, and nine men’s Grand Slam doubles titles. His singles match record of 82-3 in 1984 continues to stand as the best single season win effort of the Tennis Open Era.

But it was the 1980 Wimbledon final when John McEnroe had miraculously won the fourth-set tiebreaker over Bjorn Borg 18-16, relived famously in the 2017 film Borg McEnroe.

You Can’t Be Serious

“You Cannot Be Serious!” was McEnroe’s famous outburst used when complaining about a call by the tennis judge during a match against Tom Gullikson at the 1981 Wimbledon Championships. By this time everyone in the world was talking about American tennis great John McEnroe.

McEnroe went on to co-write a book entitled You Cannot Be Serious by James Kaplan and John McEnroe almost instantly made its way to become a NY Times best seller. The book provides details of McEnroe’s life in between tennis tours and provided quite a candid look at his personal life and how he was able to cope and make the best of his situations.

McEnroe’s father, John Sr. once said his son was always very competitive and in fact played soccer for a while. When asked about his son’s fiery gamesmanship on the tennis circuit, John Sr. replied, “I didn’t like the negative attention. How could I like it? But on the other hand, I thought if John wasn’t that way he wouldn’t be a winner. He had to let it out.”

McEnroe is the only male player since the inception of the ATP rankings in 1973 to simultaneously hold the world No. 1 rankings in both singles and doubles. Only one other player, Stefan Edberg, was able to reach No. 1 in both. McEnroe won 77 career singles titles, 77 doubles titles, and 1 mixed-doubles title during his career; this remains the highest men’s combined total of the Open Era. McEnoroe is the only male player to win more than 70 titles in both singles and doubles.

After setting aside professional tennis, McEnroe went to straight to work as a tennis commentator where he comes across at quite affable, very insightful and really funny. You can see that his intimate understanding of the game and personal stories translate well to a global tennis audience. He’s also gone on to portray himself, in product endorsements, and he’s flirted with the big screen in films like You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Anger Management and Jack and Jill. In 2022 the documentary McEnroe made a successful debut.

For McEnroe, a girl with an Irish last name seemed to be the ticket. He began dating the “it girl” and young Academy Award winning actress Tatum O’Neal. Tatum was the darling of Hollywood, even dating singer Simon Le Bon and many other hopeful suitors. McEnroe himself along with many others had grown up watching and admiring her films. So McEnroe proposed and married O’Neal which lasted from 1986 to 1994 and they had three lovely children together. O’Neal had an unfortunate drug addiction which made life challenging and at one stage a judge decided to grant McEnroe sole custody of their children. But things turned for the better and since 1997, McEnroe has been happily married finding his “match game” with pop singer Patty Smyth.

So yes, Mrs. McEnroe, aka “Patty Smyth” was a juke box hero but much more than that. Patty was a singer/songwriter, born in NY and of Irish descent. In fact the hit rock song “Because the Night” from 1977 was written by Bruce Springsteen and Patty Smyth which also appeared on the Patty Smyth Group album Easter, which debuted in 1978. Then that same year, the song was re-released as a single, skyrocketing to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Her band Scandal released their self-titled debut album in 1982; which included hit songs “Goodbye to You,” “Love’s Got a Line on You,” and “Hands Tied.” Followed up by the full-length album self-titled “The Warrior” in 1984.

In 2007 Patty Smyth was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And in 2005 she was named Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by France’s own Ministry of Culture.

John McEnroe continues to stay fit with tennis workouts, he stands 5′ 11″ and hasn’t slowed down in retirement by competing in senior events on the ATP Champions Tour. It is estimated that with his tennis winnings, books, films, tv broadcasting and various appearances, McEnroe has an estimated net worth north of $100 million. In fact, McEnroe sold his Malibu beachfront property in “The Colony” for $40 million in 2022 which he had snapped up for only 2.5 million in 1984. He keeps in close contact with his five children including Emily McEnroe, Kevin McEnroe, Anna McEnroe, Ava McEnroe, Sean McEnroe.

Another set of John McEnroe quotes:

1. “The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose. Life is a learning process and you have to try to learn what’s best for you. Let me tell you, life is not fun when you’re banging your head against a brick wall all the time.”
2. “Everybody loves success, but they hate successful people.”

Tennis great Arthur Ashe once described John McEnroe’s playing style as death by a thousand cuts. He went on that McEnroe’s had a finesse that wouldn’t necessarily overwhelm you as much with blunt force, rather what McEnroe does is surgically hit you with slices here and there leaving you bleeding and wounded, and finally leading to a total collapse of his opponent.

I think that quote by Ashe speaks volumes about one of the most beloved and loathed tennis players in history.