John McEnroe recently explained why he broke his promise of never coming back to Wimbledon after winning the tournament.
Early in his tennis career, the legendary American had multiple questionable moments and statements. Like anyone else, he can’t predict the future, and it happened to be that he was incorrect in many of his statements.
The 65-year-old spoke about it during the latest episode of the ‘Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios’ podcast, admitting that most of the things he said he would never do, like commentating and owning a tennis academy, he ultimately did.
“Pretty much everything that I said I wouldn’t do, I’ve done. You know, I’ll never play seniors tennis, never commentate. I wouldn’t be caught dead doing that. I’ll never own a tennis academy and I’m fed up with these people.”
One of those ‘promises’ that he gave to himself was also never coming back to Wimbledon, should he win it once. Already early on in his tennis career, he was considered to be one of the favorites at SW19, and according to his own words, that’s also maybe one of the reasons that prompted him to make such promise.
“So it is sort of when you’re in the middle of the eye of the storm, which I felt like some of it was my fault. So I sort of had this, if I ever win this damn tournament, I’m out of here. I’m never coming back. And, you know, I was my frustration was growing because I sort of was considered one of the favourites.”
The legendary American first played at the Wimbledon Championships in 1977 when he was just 18 years old, and already then he made it to the semi-finals, losing just to the World No. 1 player at the time, Jimmy Connors, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6.
Already then, he believed that in a few years, he could win the tournament, and indeed, he got only a few points away from doing that in 1980, when only Bjorn Borg beat him in a memorable final 1–6, 7–5, 6–3, 6–7(16), 8–6.
“You know, I made it to Wimbledon at 18, in 1977. So I’m thinking, all right, this is perfect for me. I’m going to kick some ass. And, you know, a couple of 3 or 4, four years I could have won, I lost the match to Borg. It was the most memorable matches I was ever part of, but I lost.”
Already the following year, in 1981, McEnroe was able to win the tournament, beating his Swedish rival 4–6, 7–6(1), 7–6(4), 6–4 to lift his maiden Wimbledon title.
However, despite previously giving himself the promise of ‘never coming back’ after winning the tournament, only a few minutes after he won the tournament, he wanted to do it again.
“I win the tournament. And I’m like, having said, I’m never coming back. And I felt like right at that moment I could fly. Like I could fly out of the stadium. I was like the relief and just the joy was so great. And then I remember by five minutes later, like, I want to win this again, I got to come back here.”
“It’s actually a lot easier now than it was then, because when you’re coming, you know this, you come in, you’re trying to win it. “You are sort of locked up and you feel like you can’t do anything. You’re lucky if you have a, you know, good night out or go to a good restaurant.”
