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Facing McEnroe: Book Excerpt

BookCoverImage (1)Happy to announce my fifth tennis book “Facing McEnroe” is finished and available-here is a quick excerpt. (Cover photo by June Harrison)
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“The guys’s racquet was taller than he was and yet he never missed a ball.”

Peter Fleming: “We first met when we were kids, he was twelve and I was sixteen. And we were playing at the Port Washington Tennis Academy. And one of the pros set up a little challenge match between the two of us. The pro was talking about how good this twelve year old kid was and I was sixteen at the time. I thought, How good can he be? The pro said he’s pretty good. One thing led to another and I stupidly said okay, I’ll give him 4-love, 30-love and I’ll kick his ass. He said, You’re on. A week later we showed up and there was like five kids on the sidelines watching this big challenge match. And I lost five sets in a row to him [smiles]. I couldn’t even win that 30-love game. Because I was sort of a wild player. So I would always miss, make a few errors. The guys racquet was taller than he was. And yet he never missed a ball.”

Question: He had 4-love and 30-love in each set?

Peter Fleming: “Yeah. And I never got close to winning one of those. That’s when I first met him. And when I got to know him a little bit from there you could tell the kid had something. Right from the word go.”

Question: Was his style similar then? Did he serve and volley and come forward?

Peter Fleming: “No. He was about two-feet tall. You don’t serve and volley if you’re built like that. He’d just run around the back of the court and chase everything down. He was little.”

Question: What was your most memorable match with John? With in doubles and singles?

Peter Fleming: “I suppose it had to be the Davis Cup final we played in the doubles. We played against (Guillermo) Vilas and (Jose Luis) Clerc in Cincinnati. They served for the match at 7-6 in the fifth and we ended up winning 11-9 in the fifth. And we went on to win the Davis Cup that year. It appeared to be a pivotal match.”

Question: Describe the feeling of playing against John?

Peter Fleming: “It wasn’t fun and it wasn’t easy. The guy was intense. And physically it was a challenge. If he was playing his best, I virtually had no chance, or not a big chance, let’s put it that way. You had to hope that he was just a little bit below that, then maybe there was a shot.”

Question: Did you ever get him in singles?

Peter Fleming: “Three times. Three times I beat him. In fact, the best match that we probably played was one that I didn’t win, in the final of San Francisco. I was up a set and a break three times. But just couldn’t finish him off. He took me out 6-2 in the third. But we both played well and it was a really good match.”

Question: Was it enjoyable to play John? Or was it too frustrating to enjoy?

Peter Fleming: “Nah. It wasn’t enjoyable. It was just…it was intense. Think back and say, That was a good effort. Played hard, played well. But did I ever sit down and say ‘is this great?’ No.”

Question: Lasting memory of John, on or off the court?

Peter Fleming: “I was his doubles partner for eight years and I couldn’t imagine a better doubles partner to have. I don’t think there was one time that he ever got upset with me during a match. He had that knack of making his partners, whoever it was, play near their peak. Everybody remembers him as a guy who had a fiery temper and difficult to get along with but on the doubles court he was just the opposite. He’s got a heart of gold, really. In a lot of scenarios.”

Question: Do you remember the last time you ever played doubles with him?

Peter Fleming: “It was about five years ago at Wimbledon, the seniors (vs. McNamara and McNamee). Yeah, that wasn’t one of the fun ones that we played. I think we both sort of decided, separately, that was the last time we’ll do that.”

Question: Do you remember the first time you played with John McEnroe?

Peter Fleming: “I do, yeah. We played a tournament in 1977 in Los Angeles at the LA Tennis Club. We got to the quarterfinal, we lost to Roscoe Tanner and Marty Reissen in three sets. We felt we should have won. But you always do, don’t you [smiles].”
1986 Stratton Mountain VT, U.S.A. Outdoor Hard R32 John McEnroe 61 64
1985 Houston TX, U.S.A. Indoor Carpet SF John McEnroe 64 60
1984 Montreal / Toronto Canada Outdoor Hard QF John McEnroe 62 64
1984 Philadelphia PA, U.S.A. Indoor Hard R32 John McEnroe 64 62
1981 Montreal / Toronto Canada Outdoor Hard R32 John McEnroe 63 62
1980 Wimbledon England Outdoor Grass QF John McEnroe 63 62 62
1979 San Francisco CA, U.S.A. Indoor Hard F John McEnroe 46 75 62
1979 Los Angeles CA, U.S.A. Outdoor Hard F Peter Fleming 64 64
1979 San Jose CA, U.S.A. Outdoor Hard F John McEnroe 76 76
1978 WCT Challenge Cup Jamaica Indoor Carpet RR Peter Fleming 65 46 64
1978 Bologna Italy Outdoor Clay SF Peter Fleming 64 61
1978 US Open NY, U.S.A. Outdoor Hard R32 John McEnroe 64 61
1978 London / Queen’s Club Great Britain Outdoor Grass R64 John McEnroe 46 75 63

——————– You can order the book here for $9.99.  https://www.createspace.com/6220633

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7 comments

  • Scoop Malinowski · August 31, 2016 at 10:43 pm

  • Thomas Tung · September 2, 2016 at 1:12 am

    Booked your book via Amazon; looking forward to it 🙂

  • Scoop Malinowski · September 2, 2016 at 9:15 am

    Thanks Thomas – Good spending time with you at the Open my friend – did you notice that was boxer Andrew Golota sitting behind you at Berankis-Jaziri? 🙂

  • Thomas Tung · September 2, 2016 at 11:42 am

    No, I didn’t; I didn’t get a good look at him. I actually thought he was a coach or friend of one of the players that you knew.

  • Scoop Malinowski · September 2, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    Donaldson into the third round with big win v Troicki – Boy he looked to dead in Key Biscayne this year – lost in the last round of qualies to a Japanese player and then LLed into the draw and lost again in straight sets – another insider said he looked like a weaponless player who could have peaked at 19 – Now look at Donaldson – he’ tearing up the US Open into th FOURTH round – Sock also just won first set vs Cilic – Isner still alive too I think he plays Donaldson next – Harrison is still alive vs Bag up a break in second set –

  • Christopher Stone · September 9, 2016 at 3:03 pm

    I bought the kindle version from Amazon.
    It has numerous typographical issues.

    For example:

    A er his a ve tennis playing career, John became a successful television commentator.

    “Facing McEnroe” us an inves ga on and celebra on of the special first-person experience of compe ng on a tennis court”

    Seems that random “t’s” are missing.

    hanks,

    Chris

  • Scoop Malinowski · September 10, 2016 at 8:51 am

    Hi Chris we are working on fixing it – Have no idea how this happened – Very sorry for this text error which is not in the book form -Jut another unforseen obstacle in the arduous process of producing a book –

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