Many books and films have already been devoted to tennis player John McEnroe, but director Barney Douglas has dared to do it again. The fascinating result, the documentary McEnroewas shown this week on the Belgian TV channel Canvas.
Did it make us much wiser? Yes and no.
We were able to learn once again that behind the facade of fame and doom among top players there is much more than we realize. As a tennis fan, I closely followed McEnroe during his sensational rise in the 1980s and steady decline thereafter. He experienced a kind of comeback, but never reached his old level again.
What went wrong? His private life became too restless, as this film shows. Women, addiction to cocaine, arguments with father, divorce from movie star Tatum O’Neal, with whom he had three children, whose custody later rested with him because Tatum had become addicted to heroin. Top sport requires almost inhuman discipline, anyone who can no longer muster that will sooner or later perish. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, three equally legendary successors, were able to hold on.
McEnroe was 25 years old and almost invincible when he had his peak year in 1984, after which the decline set in. His biggest rival (and friend) upon his rise was Björn Borg. As a 26-year-old, he ended his brilliant career completely unexpectedly, shortly after losing the final of the US Open to McEnroe in 1981. That was a blow to McEnroe who almost begged Borg to stay. Borg says in this documentary that McEnroe could not understand his decision and that he therefore advised him: “Come back in a while and it will be clear to you.”
“I have never regretted it,” Borg later said of his decision. “It wouldn’t have helped if I had won against McEnroe. I simply didn’t enjoy it anymore. It was no longer fun to train, my motivation became less and less.” Knowing his friend’s restless nature, Borg must have suspected that he too would have problems with the required discipline.
This film also shows how much the pressure of expectations and media attention can disrupt the life of a top player. Moreover, like Richard Krajicek, McEnroe had an extremely difficult father. For both of them it resulted in a complete break with their father. McEnroe’s was a vain man who became his son’s manager, but at the same time had difficulty with his role in the shadows. “I am not John McEnroe senior,” he told a journalist, “it is John McEnroe and the son is John McEnroe junior.” He was a perfectionist who traveled with John all over the world. It started to get on Junior’s nerves so much that he fired Senior. Dad never recovered from that, he ended up as an alcoholic. Yes, there is a lot of addiction in this movie. Unfortunately, a cardinal question remains unanswered: how can McEnroe’s infamous, often angry behavior – especially towards umpires – on the court be explained? I suspect it had to do with that father against whom he did not yet dare to rebel, but I admit that this may be psychology of the cold tennis grass.
A version of this article also appeared in the September 8, 2023 newspaper.