The Biofile: Patrick McEnroe
Status: Former ATP pro from 1988-1998. Winner of one ATP singles title (Sydney in 1995) and 16 doubles titles. Winner of the 1989 French Open in doubles. Achieved a career-high rank of number three in doubles (1993) and 28th in singles (1995). Former captain of U.S. Davis Cup team 2000-2010, including the 2007 U.S. team’s win in Portland, Ore. vs. Russia. TV commentator for CBS and ESPN. General manager of USTA Player Development since 2008.
Date of birth: July 1, 1966 in Manhasset, N.Y.
Height: 6-ft.
Weight: 160 lbs.
College: Stanford
First tennis memory: Hitting against the wall at the Douglaston Club. And when I used to play my own matches between Rosewall and Laver … they always went five and Laver always won 6-4 in the fifth. So I had the points, then, I played the whole score until it got to Laver and he would win 6-4 in the fifth [smiles].
Tennis inspirations: Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall
First job: Selling t-shirts or a ball boy at the U.S. Open
First car: A 1984 Chevy Camaro, a hand-me-down from my brother Mark.
Childhood dream: Earn a college degree. As a kid, it wasn’t like I knew I wanted to play tennis. When it came to the end of college, it became apparent to me that I wanted to give tennis a shot.
Greatest sports moment: The most fun I ever had was doing well at the Open, reaching the quarters. Probably my best moment was the semis in the Australian Open (1991), then getting to the doubles final in the same tournament. Played a match every day for 12-13 days in a row.
Most painful moment: Losing to Jimmy Connors [laughs] … that’s a given.
Favorite tournament: Well, the Open was always the best for me because it was home, but the Australian Open … I love the Australian.
Favorite movies: I’m not a movie guy.
Funniest players encountered: Richey Reneberg’s got to be up there.
Closest tennis friends: Over the years, most of my friends from tennis are guys you wouldn’t know … guys I grew up with, other than Jonathan Starks and Richey Reneberg.
Toughest competitors encountered: Probably Jimmy Connors. He never wanted to give you anything. Lleyton Hewitt is up there as well, along with Rafael Nadal, Michael Chang, Stefan Edberg and Thomas Muster.
The best you’ve ever felt on the court: I could come up with some obscure matches that no one would care about. Probably the best match I ever played was a loss to Boris Becker at the Open when I lost to him in the quarterfinals in four sets in a match that lasted like four hours. I remember thinking to myself after two sets: “I’ve played about as well as I could play, and I’m down two sets to love.” And then I just started to go for bigger shots and made some of them, won the third and very nearly won the fourth. That’s probably the best I felt. Even though I actually beat Boris on a couple of occasions, including the Australian Open one year … that loss was probably the best I ever felt. That same year at the Open, I played Brett Steven from New Zealand, a pretty solid player. He had beaten Goran Ivanisevic and I played him in the second round and beat him 2, 2 and 2.
First famous tennis player you ever met: John McEnroe. (Besides him?) [Laughs] I’m going to say Ilie Nastase. He used to call us the Macaronis. He used to call my dad Mr. Macaroni. I met Ilie at Forest Hills.
Embarrassing tennis memory: Playing Team Tennis after semi-retiring and going back on the Tour and losing five-love to my good buddy Richey Reneberg. And telling myself, “I’ll never put myself in that position again, where I feel like Mardy Fish felt today (vs. Juan Monaco at Key Biscayne). Where you can’t hit one ball in the court.
Favorite players to watch: Rafael Nadal, and it’s always great to watch Roger Federer. I like watching Mansour Bahrami as well.
Favorite sport outside of tennis: NBA basketball.
Funny tennis memory: Being introduced at an exhibition event in Winston-Salem, N.C., against Mel Purcell … being introduced as “John McEnroe” as I was taking my warm-up serves. I immediately turned to my brother’s lefty serving position and did the whole Johnny Mac rock [smiles].
Personality qualities most admired: Loyalty. Honesty. Integrity. Class. People that have a great faith in themselves. Dedicated and disciplined people who try to get the most out of themselves.
