After crossing swords so often with the likes of Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic and Boris Becker, John McEnroe never thought he’d live to see the day when the baseline at Wimbledon would be a brown trench, while the grass up around the center service line remains a pristine green. And he’s not so sure that Roger Federer’s rivals are aware of the opportunity they may be missing by refusing to come to net.
“I could never have imagined that we’d have two guys playing the Wimbledon final from the baseline, much less that they would produce the greatest match I’ve ever seen,” McEnroe says, in reference to last year’s Wimbledon final between Federer and Rafael Nadal, known at that point as primarily a clay-court baseline titan. “It’s been great for spectators, because people got pretty sick of watching two guys blasting service rockets at each other. But it’s a pretty crazy game when a guy like Nadal is coming to the net more often at times than the guy he’s playing.”
McEnroe knows it would be foolish and borderline insulting to argue with the degree of success that Federer has enjoyed at Wimbledon—five consecutive Wimbledon titles, starting in 2003, and a loss to Nadal in that five-set epic last year. Still, as Federer seeks to surpass Pete Sampras as the holder of the most Grand Slam singles titles (the men are currently tied at 14 majors apiece), McEnroe is baffled by the fact that so many players avoid forcing the action the way the power players of yore did.
“Watching these guys today, I still can’t help but think that if Sampras walked out there, he’d drive most of these guys bananas. Pete’s the greatest fast-court player who ever lived, and he would have his opponents scratching their heads: What’s going on here?” says McEnroe, who considers Federer the greatest Open era player, the deal having been sealed at Roland Garros earlier this month.
“With the success Roger’s had at Wimbledon, he hasn’t had to change anything,” says the three-time Wimbledon champ. “I think he’s serving and volleying 10 to 15 percent of the time over the last six years. So you’d think a couple of guys would try to take advantage of that, because they have no business staying back against Roger. They may hit some good shots but they’re certainly not going to beat him from the baseline. Why not make some attempt to be at least reasonably aggressive?”
McEnroe, who brought the art of hard-charging, slashing, aggressive tennis to an apotheosis in the mid-1980s, suffers no illusions about how the game has changed over the past few decades. As the courts have become more uniform and slower, they’ve produced higher bounces for taller players, who use more extreme grips that enable them to answer even deadly kick serves and hopping topspin with alacrity. The evolving racquet and string technologies have had an impact as well, McEnroe acknowledges.
“The game has really been homogenized, and guys play a similar style today. And more and more, you see guys playing the same way on clay as on grass. I mean, [surprise French Open finalist] Robin Soderling is going to go out there at Wimbledon and play the same way that he did in Paris. So is Roger, for that matter.”
The grass is playing slower than it did in McEnroe’s salad years. Nevertheless, “The ball still moves through a grass court quicker than on a hard or clay court, so there’s still some advantage to a guy taking the ball early to force the action, or hitting the ball in the air with a volley.”
McEnroe, who’s 50, admits that if he were part of the current generation, he might employ a different strategy than the one that netted him seven major titles. Yet the emphasis on “big swings” and Ironman-grade fitness (the gym these days is as important a venue for most developing players as is the practice court) has led players to neglect their volley game, making them less sure-footed and confident coming to the net.
The game that dominates today was pioneered by one of McEnroe’s great career rivals, Ivan Lendl. “It’s all about dictating play—taking control of a point with a big serve followed with your first shot off the return, preferably a big forehand. Ivan is probably tearing his hair out today, because he would have thrived in this climate,” says McEnroe. “But my way of dealing with that was to take the ball early, not let a guy like Lendl dictate the terms, and I’m not so sure there isn’t room for that strategy anymore.”
Pundits these days often talk about how adept today’s pros are at returning serve, and while McEnroe acknowledges that the return is more of a weapon than ever before, he thinks it may be partly because the lack of serve-and-volley play allows returners to swing away with no pressure to make a precise, targeted return.
“They (returners) can do anything, because they know the server isn’t coming in,” says McEnroe. “Psychologically, that’s a huge comfort. They can even chip back the serve. Andy Murray is a great returner, period. But he’ll often chip back that first serve because he won’t have to pay a price, and he can then start the point on even terms. So you wonder, why don’t some of these guys come in like, one out of four times, just so the returner is thinking, I’m not sure what he’s doing here, he may be coming at me.”
Without a viable power player near the top of the game, the focus has shifted to the athleticism, fitness and artistry of the players. McEnroe thinks Rod Laver and Federer play the most “beautiful” tennis he’s ever seen—the kind of tennis most people would wish to play if they had a choice in the matter. But he’s not convinced that beautiful tennis can checkmate aggressive tennis.
McEnroe draws upon a baseball analogy to make his point about the game today, and the diminished role of the power player: “Some people appreciate the artistry of a guy like Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens pitching a 1-0 game in the World Series. That’s Pete in his prime. On the other hand, if you prefer a 6-5 game, with lots of nuances, that’s Federer versus Nadal. I went to a game once when a young Josh Beckett shut down the (then) all-powerful Yankees—made them look like a Triple A team. That’s what Pete used to do. He didn’t care how beautiful you looked, he had the ability to just bludgeon and shut you down.”
But with few players around to challenge Federer with Sampras-esque aggression, we may have to settle for the equivalent of another 6-5 game. It could be worse.
TENNIS senior editor Peter Bodo caught up with John McEnroe, a spokesman for prostate cancer awareness, while he was filming a public service announcement on behalf of pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline.