“I did things that threw people off; unfortunately certain rules and regulations are abused” - John McEnroe on his feisty behavior and players abusing bathroom breaks during matches
John McEnroe recently opened up about certain rules and regulations in tennis that are allowed and abused, and even admitted to partaking in certain disruptive techniques.
In a video for GQ, McEnroe discussed the portrayal of tennis scenes in various movies. One of the movies the American legend talked about was King Richard, which revolves around the upbringing of Venus Williams and Serena Williams by their father Richard Williams.
The seven-time Major winner touched upon the climax of the film, where a 14-year-old Venus played and lost her second match on the WTA tour against the then World No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. The scene showed the Spaniard taking an extended bathroom break to disrupt Williams' momentum while she was leading in the match.
John McEnroe said that it revealed certain aspects of tennis which can be exploited to gain an advantage over the opponent.
“What happens there is, you try to find a way to throw them off basically, and unfortunately in tennis there’s certain rules and regulations that are allowed, and they’re abused. One of them is the bathroom break, which is basically a try to kill the momentum and that’s in essence what happened in this match,” he said.
John McEnroe revealed that during his days, a bathroom break was not allowed. He, however, accepted that there were certain exceptions. The American, who was known for being mercurial on the court, admitted to partaking in certain such techniques to distract the opponent during his career.
“When I was playing, this is before Venus’ time and before Serena’s, we weren’t even allowed bathroom breaks, which would, you know, tense you up a little bit. You know, if you absolutely couldn’t wait anymore, I suppose there were certain exceptions, but there was no rule for going in bathroom break, bringing trainers, on the court, things that are abused,” he recalled.
“You know, you could argue that I did things that threw people off, my behavior. This [bathroom break] is another form of that, in a way. And I think it's just as bad if not worse,” he added.
35 years ago today, John McEnroe had this outburst... https://t.co/3SEQDqfKga
Unlike in John McEnroe’s era, ATP now has firm guidelines for bathroom breaks
Players on the ATP and WTA tours have frequently been accused of using bathroom breaks as calculated strategies to disrupt their opponents. Although things may have been different during John McEnroe's reign, the ATP now has new rules in place.
Players such as Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic have been called out for taking long breaks between sets and emerging victorious thereafter. Taking note of such instances, the ATP recently revised the rules for such breaks and now has strict guidelines in place.
Tsitsipas is quite scarred by Novak taking a bathroom break and coming back to beat him from 2 sets down in the RG final this year, to the extent that he himself takes bathroom breaks after every set he loses in hopes to comeback and win.
Players are now limited to one three-minute bathroom break per match, which will be permitted at the end of a set. Additionally, they are allowed two minutes to change clothes.
Additionally, after strictly prohibiting coaching during matches for many years, the ATP recently decided to allow off-court coaching on a trial basis, notably seen at the recently concluded US Open.