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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

John McEnroe Quotes

Nick Kyrgios, if you don’t want to be a professional tennis player, do something else.

– John McEnroe

To be involved in a senior tournament back in the States is very satisfying.

– John McEnroe

There’s a certain beauty and majesty to Wimbledon. The elegance, the way the grass looks on TV.

– John McEnroe

No other athlete in any sport has ever had to go through what I have to.

– John McEnroe

I’d like to think I could have and should have won more, but that’s not the point. And I was at the point where I was playing great tennis in the mid 80s – the type of tennis people hadn’t seen before – and I was very proud of that.

– John McEnroe

This taught me a lesson, but I’m not quite sure what it is.

– John McEnroe

I was always fighting the establishment, trying to run through brick walls.

– John McEnroe

Look at Becker and Djokovic. If you look at Novak’s record since Boris has been there, it’s been phenomenal.

– John McEnroe

They would go back and listen to my matches, and two days later, I’d be fined. Because no one heard it while it was being played, but they heard it on some mic behind the court. Is that the way it should be? I don’t think so.

– John McEnroe

I remember when I was younger taking more pride in Wimbledon than the French. That and the U.S. Open – they were the ones I wanted to win.

– John McEnroe

I did a terrible job of composing myself. I was a spoiled brat from Long Island who benefitted from the energy of New York.

– John McEnroe

If they think I’m better at commentating than I was as a player, then I must be pretty darned good at commentating.

– John McEnroe

The older I get, the better I used to be.

– John McEnroe

Tennis was a white, upper-class sport, and I wanted it to be treated like other sports were.

– John McEnroe

I can barely remember what I was like 36 years ago when I was 21 years old.

– John McEnroe

Believe it or not, I was a pretty shy youngster growing up.

– John McEnroe

If you watch a guy go out on court and have a meltdown, you’re not going to think, ‘Oh my God, now I’m screwed.’ Or you’re not going to think, ‘The umpire’s going to give him calls because he’s just told him he’s an idiot or the pits of the world.’

– John McEnroe

I am finicky about making sure my sneakers are pretty tight. It is almost like a superstition for me.

– John McEnroe

I’ve never seen a good tennis movie. They all were terrible.

– John McEnroe

I always got along with Borg, who was my greatest rival. People like to see me and Connors, me and Lendl, go at it. We didn’t like each other.

– John McEnroe

I didn’t serve and volley until I got to Wimbledon in ’77.

– John McEnroe

Sometimes you get hungrier when you taste it.

– John McEnroe

The sting of losing is bad.

– John McEnroe

When I felt I was rejected by my first wife, and she said, ‘Some day you will thank me for this,’ you know what? I do. And so, sometimes it is darkest before the dawn. You can think it is bleak and you can’t see. You never know.

– John McEnroe

I am someone who gets pretty worked up.

– John McEnroe

I went on safari in South Africa just after apartheid had ended.

– John McEnroe

I’m a tell-it-like-it-is kind of person; I don’t like being misled or someone not telling the truth. That upsets me.

– John McEnroe

Well I think that’s probably one of a few, where I grew up in the City of New York, it’s got a lot of energy, my parents are Irish-American so there was a bit of yelling going on in my house but it seemed normal.

– John McEnroe

If you’re out there and things are going badly, are you going to cry or break down?

– John McEnroe

I’m generally happy, although my kids and wife may sometimes argue with that.

– John McEnroe

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