McEnroe, John Patrick, Jr.

McEnroe, John Patrick, Jr.

(măk`ənrō'), 1959–, American tennis player, b. Weisbaden, West Germany. He grew up in Douglaston, Queens, N.Y. After winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association singles title while a student at Stanford Univ. (1978), he turned professional, playing that year for the first of many times on the U.S. Davis Cup team. In 1979 he won the first of four U.S. Open titles (the others were in 1980–81 and 1984); his three Wimbledon singles titles came in 1981 and 1983–84. During a career in which his chief rivals were Jimmy ConnorsConnors, Jimmy
(James Scott Connors, Jr.), 1952–, American tennis player, b. East St. Louis, Ill. A volatile, controversial, and fiercely competitive player, Connors was known for his theatrical conduct on the court as well as for his powerful two-handed backhand, strong
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 and Ivan LendlLendl, Ivan
, 1960–, Czech-American tennis player. After leading Czechoslovakia to its only Davis Cup championship (1980), he moved to the United States, and became one of the dominant singles players in professional tennis during the 1980s.
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, McEnroe was often ranked first in the world. He was noted for his abrasive manner and displays of temper, especially in his earlier years. On retiring from the tour in 1993, he became a television tennis commentator and has since sometimes played on the senior circuit and (more rarely) the ATP Tour.

Bibliography

See his memoir, You Cannot Be Serious (2002, with J. Kaplan).