Rafael Nadal's Olympic withdrawal opens the door for two of tennis' biggest servers—John Isner and Milos Raonic—to make a run at an Olympic medal, Hall of Famer John McEnroe tells TENNIS.com. McEnroe says the shorter best-of-three set Olympic format makes it much more likely a dark horse will break through, though he still considers Wimbledon winner Roger Federer, 2011 Wimbledon champ Novak Djokovic, and SW19 finalist Andy Murray the heavy favorites.
"Nadal's out, so that opens things up a little bit already. Yes, I would think [a dark horse Olympic medalist] is possible," McEnroe said during a press conference to promote his Sept. 22 match against Pete Sampras at the Greenbrier Champions Tennis Classic. "I still think my guy John Isner—especially now that it's two out of three sets to the final—would be a nightmare for any of these guys and the format makes it much [possible]. In two out of three sets, Isner could be a nightmare for any of the guys. And the format makes it much more doable if he was in the right part of the draw, for example, where maybe he wouldn't have to play two of these top guys."
While McEnroe says Raonic is a Top 10 talent, he points to the Canadian's proclivity for being dragged into baseline rallies, rather than using his net skills, as a stumbling block to becoming the first Canadian man to win a singles medal (Sébastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor won the doubles gold at the 2000 Sydney Games).
"Isner's the type of guy I would see," McEnroe said. "Raonic has got an unbelievably big serve, but he stays back a lot, especially on grass, which I don't get. Something like [an upset] is much more likely to happen at the Olympics than at the majors right now. So I think there's a possibility, though I would still have to say that one of those three guys [Federer, Djokovic or Murray winning medals] would be highly probable."—Richard Pagliaro