Tennis and sports fans may have noticed that John Mcenroe has been in the media a lot lately. Most recently several news firms covered comments that he made about Serena Williams where he claimed that she would be the 700th-ranked player on the men's tour. McEnroe made the comments to news agency NPR regarding Williams: "if she played the men's circuit she'd be like 700 in the world" (June 25th article). In recent times, McEnroe has been central to a lot of tennis debates/commentary, more so than usual. I wouldn't be surprised if it is all related to an upcoming release date for a tennis film starring Shia LaBeouf.
McEnroe's other confrontational remarks
Earlier this month McEnroe called current World No. 1 Andy Murray "a distant fourth" in terms of where the Scot measures up against contemporaries Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic (June 18th/The Telegraph/Oliver Brown).
McEnroe was also interviewed by The Guardian recently regarding Djokovic and his tennis plight that started at Wimbledon 2016. Kevin Mitchell, a writer with that news agency, cited McEnroe: “From an emotional standpoint (Djokovic) perhaps felt he wanted to bring in somebody who wants to give people a lot of hugs. That does not necessarily translate to having that killer instinct. It does not automatically lose it, but you don’t want to get into a situation where it is all peace and love and then have to go out and try to stomp on somebody’s head in competition.”
The comments regarding Serena Williams, Andy Murray, and Novak Djokovic certainly have things in common.
They all target very famous tennis personalities and they are all confrontation provoking in nature. His comments about Williams will stir emotions as it has to do with the battle of sexes in sports. The comments about her, Murray, and Djokovic will all stir up emotions with tennis fans in general.
Film release a motive for provoking comments?
Of course, this is a huge time of year for tennis popularity as Wimbledon, considered the biggest tennis tournament annually, will start this time next week. But John McEnroe's tennis life is also central to a soon-to-be-released film known as "Borg," a film that will be released in September (first in Sweden) according to its IMDB home page.
The title references the great Bjorn Borg, a tennis player best known for his results at the French Open during his career, results that only Nadal has been able to best. Borg, who is retired early, rivaled McEnroe on the grass-court surface at Wimbledon. The film tells the story of the 1980 Wimbledon final and LaBeouf will play McEnroe while Borg will be played by lesser-known actor Sverrir Gudnason. McEnroe is often involved in tennis debates, but it does seem like he's more involved lately than usual. Perhaps that's due to the upcoming film release where his life is looked at alongside that of his rival.
