"Players today seem like unbelievably nice people, Rafael Nadal has claimed he’s never broken a racket in his life but generally, people are more like me and Connors than Borg" - John McEnroe
John McEnroe, probably the most famous bad boy in tennis, is of the opinion that today's superstars such as Rafael Nadal are "unbelievably nice" -- and not necessarily in a good way.
Nadal has one of the biggest reputations in the sport, one that extends way beyond his prowess on the court. As much as he is known for winning an unimaginable 14 titles at the French Open, Nadal is just as admired for the way he conducts himself in front of the fans.
One such feather in the 22-time Grand Slam champion's cap is the fact that he has never broken a racquet in his career -- a characteristic drilled into him from a young age by his uncle Toni Nadal, who saw the act as disrespectful and impolite. McEnroe, however, begs to differ.
Speaking in a recent interview with The Week magazine on the occasion of his documentary coming out, the American remarked that such gentlemen are more often an exception than the norm.
In a sport like tennis where emotions are always running high, McEnroe reckons more players are similar to hotheads like him and Jimmy Connors than the cold and emotional persona of someone like Bjorn Borg. The seven-time Grand Slam champion recalled how he himself had tried to emulate Borg in the past, but such an impassionate approach to the game proved to be simply beyond him.
"[Players today] seem like unbelievably nice people. Rafael Nadal has claimed he’s never broken a racket in his life. But generally, I think people are, as far as tennis goes, more like me and Connors than Borg, who never showed any expression," McEnroe said. "It’s a very frustrating game that it’s hard not to get emotional about. I’d be, like, 'I’m gonna go practice and be like Borg for two hours,' and that would last, like, five minutes. It just wasn’t in my DNA.”
: 1987Late Night at the #USOpen:
Wild stuff on court between Lendl and McEnroe...
🎥: 1987 https://t.co/Qxv1Kl2Ff3
The former World No. 1 further added that, slowly, he bought into his own "brat" personality, to the point that it completely changed his life. McEnroe regretted how people came to recognize him only as the bad guy -- which might be slightly true on the tennis court, but off the court, he was just as nice a guy as anyone else.
“You sort of feed into this villain thing, maybe unbeknownst to yourself, and then it becomes this out-of-control monster," McEnroe said. "People started to recognise me—‘Are you that brat guy?’—and it completely changed my life. I was, like, ‘They don’t understand me, I’m a nice guy.’ But of course I wasn’t real nice on the court at times.”
Regarding how he and Connors managed to intimidate their opponents despite their relatively small stature, the 63-year-old revealed that it had nothing to do with one's physicality at all. Instead, it all depends primarily upon the intensity one radiates off their body, which will go a long way in instilling fear in the minds of the opponents.
“Connors isn’t that big a guy, I’m not that big a guy, you have to come at your opponents with an intensity that radiates off your body,” McEnroe said. “That’s what intimidates them.”
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"Novak Djokovic and Nadal have played 59 times now, Borg and I only played 14" - John McEnroe on how much he regrets Borg's early retirement
John McEnroe also touched on how Bjorn Borg's early retirement affected his own career as well, remarking that it was a shame that he didn't get to face off against the Swede more. Bursting onto the scene as a young teenager, Borg took the tennis world by storm and helped propel the sport into popularity all around the globe.
Sixteen years. 59 matches between Djokovic and Nadal and the gap is only 30-29
One of the greatest rivalries in sports
The former World No. 1 became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slams, a record that has been broken by multiple players since. However, Borg hung up his racquet just a decade after turning pro, even before he turned 30.
McEnroe's head-to-head against Borg reads 7-7, a rivalry that gave the world one of the biggest matches in the sport -- the 1980 Wimbledon final. Often regarded as one of the greatest clashes of all time, Borg managed to hold off the American in an extraordinary five-setter that set the world on fire.
'His [Borg's] departure, it seems, broke #McEnroe's heart. Sure, he became undisputed number one, but he'd sooner have stayed number two with Borg to beat and be beaten by.' From 'Winner's Curse', a superb - what else? - piece by Simon Barnes in a recent @RadioTimes. https://t.co/EiecJvMBMl
Pointing to another great rivalry, the one between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic that stands at 30-29 in favor of the Serb, McEnroe noted that he and Borg could have had something similar going on if the Swede hadn't rushed his retirement.
“Absolutely. It would have been better for me and the game. It was just a huge hole. Novak Djokovic and Nadal have played 59 times now, which is a crazy amount of times," McEnroe said. "Borg and I only played 14. It was a damn shame.”