Tennis Prose




Sep/22

6

Andrea Jaeger On John McEnroe

Writing about the two week US Open Tennis Event a must to include is New York’s own John McEnroe. When a little pip-squeak, I competed in the advanced much older Pepsi Grand Slam tournament. I was invited to play more as a novelty as the organizers never thought I would get past the first round. I attended in my over-sized hat, warm up clothes and ended up winning the tournament. More important to me than the prestigious trophy was meeting the elder statesmen of the men’s pro division of the Pepsi Grand Slam Cup. I met John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Vilas.

The famous sports photographer, Art Seitz, saw how kind and welcoming John, Bjorn and Vilas were with me so he gave me one of his bulky cameras to play with while he took several pictures. Sports fans remember forever their special pro athlete moments when a sports star enjoyed saying hello to them, even better taking a picture with genuine care, smiling and talking as if their fan mattered. I was no different. When I was this same age as in the younger picture with McEnroe, a few years before I turned professional at age 14, the women’s pro tennis event was in Chicago. I was practicing at a local club with my sister. We walked into the locker room to put up our jackets. In walked two of the women tennis pros, one of them nearly knocking my sister to her feet. Being already protective of others at a young age, I turned to look who had the rudeness and audacity to barrel into my slight sister nearly bruising my sister, never even bothering to apologize.

Who was it? A player who became No. 1 in women’s pro tennis. I ended up defeating that player myself three times on tour (Note: Jaeger beat Evert three times in 20 matches and Martina four out of 15). She was the same type of person on tour. It was always interesting to me growing up that McEnroe was a cool and special older brother to me since we first met in this picture and still today, to others too. John often got a bad rap for his own court attitude, few knowing his real true self. On the other side of No. 1, the women’s side, their No. 1 was praised to the heavens even though she was kind of a jerk often away from cameras. The Universe does right things eventually. No one ever can avoid the truth of the Universe. Thank goodness. Plus, inner happiness shows up in kindness to others. Even though McEnroe did have many outbursts on court he had and has one of the biggest, nicest, honorable, generous hearts. I am grateful for all the experiences I have had and continue to thank New York for the special US Open it puts on every year. –Andrea Jaeger www.littlestar.org

Andrea Jaeger won ten WTA singles titles and reached no. 2 ranking in singles in 1981. Her pro match record was 260-85. She won the French Open mixed doubles title with Jimmy Arias in 1981 and retired in 1987 due to injuries.

· ·

1 comment

  • Scoop Malinowski · September 6, 2022 at 2:02 pm

    Very interesting that bullying and intimidation even takes place in women’s tennis. #equality

<<

>>

Find it!

Copyright 2010
Tennis-Prose.com
To top