eNewsHound

The Australian Open is coming up, and with it, a renewed interest in tennis: its history and its players.  Perhaps one the most polarizing people ever in the history tennis was not the groundbreaking Billie Jean King and all that she did to make tennis a more even playing ground for women to compete in, but the Superbrat.  Named so by the British press for his nasty tantrums that included swearing and classic one-liners like “You cannot be SERIOUS!” John McEnroe has made a name for himself as a seriously good tennis player.  His tennis scores and matches throughout the years prove it.

Often people tuned into the matches, people who were not normally fans, simply to wait and watch for one of his famous tantrums and shouting sessions.  Nearing fifty, he has yet to cool down.  And incidentally, his famous line actually turned out to do him some good use later on his life.  It became a serious of commercials for the car rental company, National Car Rental, and when he wrote his autobiography, he did not have to look far for a title.  In later years, he has branched out even further, doing an episode of CSI: NY.

Despite his flare-ups and seeming rudeness on the courts, he actually has deep respect for many of the people he has played against, but not so much for many of the calls umpires made during those matches.  Bjorn Borg and he had a famously intense rivalry, but both hold an extreme reverence for the other a player, both during their heyday challenging the other to new heights and accomplishments.

He might be rude.  He might have hurt tennis’s reputations.  But there is one thing that John McEnroe never was or will be: boring.

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