"I wonder to this day, 'Was it really too much for me?'" - When John McEnroe injured himself ahead of Australian Open SF on debut
John McEnroe once injured himself ahead of the Australian Open semifinal. Incidentally, that was his very first appearance at the Melbourne Major.
McEnroe played in a period where most top players would not compete at the Australian Open. His debut came in 1983, when he was seeded second. The American reached the semifinals with wins over Tony Giammalva, Ramesh Krishnan, Tum Gullikson and Wally Masur.
John McEnroe was, however, beaten by a teenage Mats Wilander in four sets in the semis.
The American wrote about the match in his book "You Cannot be Serious" and mentioned practicing with Peter McNamara, who suffered an injury earlier in 1983. McEnroe wrote that he thought he was lucky to be healthy and that he would win the Australian Open on his first attempt, before injuring his knee the same night.
"Peter was just starting to come back, but he was still limping pretty badly. I thought about how my ankle and shoulder had healed, and I had one of those there-but-for-the-grace-of-God moments: I thought, “Man, I am so lucky I’ve got my health—I’m going to win this thing," McEnroe said.
"I really thought my chances against Wilander on grass were excellent. And then that night, somehow—it had to be psychosomatic—my knee went out on me," he added.
The American further wrote that he wondered whether "relaxing and smelling roses" was too much for him and if winning the Australian Open on his first attempt was too big a task. McEnroe claimed he wasn't moving right during the match against Wilander.
"I wonder to this day: Was it really too much for me to relax and smell the roses for just that one moment? Did it feel like too big a deal to win the Australian my first time out? In any case, the next morning I was panicking," McEnroe said.
"I went to the trainer, who taped me up, but after splitting the first two sets with Wilander, I felt I wasn’t moving right, and I ripped all the tape off. It didn’t help. I lost in four sets, and Wilander killed Lendl in the final," he added.
John McEnroe won 18 out of 23 matches at the Australian Open
John McEnroe featured in just five editions of the Australian Open, winning 18 out of 23 matches.
After 1983, the American competed in 1985 as the second seed, and reached the quarterfinals before losing to Slobodan Zivojinovic. He next entered the 1989 tournament seeded seventh, and once again made it to the last eight before being beaten by eventual champion Ivan Lendl.
McEnroe competed at the 1990 Australian Open and reached the fourth round, where he led by two sets to one against Mikael Pernfors. However, he ended up being defaulted due to unsportsmanlike conduct.
McEnroe's last appearance at the Melbourne Major came in 1992, where he reached the quarterfinals with wins over Broderick Dyke, Andrei Cherkasov, then-defending champion Boris Becker and 13th seed Emilio Sanchez. However, he lost to Amos Mandorf.