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May/17

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Facing McEnroe Book Interview

facing-macAt the Miami Open I did a quick interview with a reporter from a tennis site about my fifth tennis book “Facing McEnroe”…

Question: What inspired you to write Facing McEnroe?

Scoop Malinowski: “Curiosity to know what is it like to actually play tennis against John McEnroe. We’ve seen the matches live or on TV. I wanted to investigate deeper by talking to the players about their experiences on the tennis courts with John.”

Question: Did you learn anything unexpected?

Scoop Malinowski: “Yes for sure. I believe McEnroe’s arguing antics were a calculated tactic to try to distract the opponent. As one player said, “If the score was 4-2 for John, nothing would happen. If it was 3-3, John would definitely do something.” I learned John was always a ferocious competitor. One player said even in practice sets with nobody watching, after he retired, he would summon the same intensity as if it was a Wimbledon final. There were also several close calls of actual fistfights. There were so many amusing stories and anecdotes that I’m very happy to have dedicated all the time and hours to this book.”

Question: What was the highlight of the process?

Scoop Malinowski: “Whew. Many highlights. The memories by Ivan Lendl, Peter McNamara, Paul McNamee, Pat Cash, Brian Gottfried, Tim Mayotte. But a weird one pops in my head first. When the tennis writers were playing on the courts in Vermont and John just finished his own practice and walked by and dared any of the writers that if they could even get a racquet on his serve, he would pay them twenty bucks. Harvey Araton of the New York Times shared that anecdote.”

Question: Were most of the players cooperative about helping you complete this project?

Scoop Malinowski: “Absolutely. The retired players have less stress and pressure and don’t mind revealing a few juicy secrets. Only one player turned me down and that was Phil Dent. The entertainment value of the memories and stories the players told me about Facing McEnroe exceeded all expectations. I still remember talking with Paul McNamee inside the players lounge at the US Open and him sharing fifteen minutes of tape on my recorder which was like audio gold. Pat Cash, Bryan Shelton and Tim Mayotte were others who took a lot of time and shared many interesting details. Gosh, there were so many thrilling moments working on this book.”

Question: How long did it take you to finish the book?

Scoop Malinowski: “About two years off and on. I did the interviews with players at the US Open, Newport, Delray Beach, Miami Open over two years.”

Question: Were you able to interview Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg?

Scoop Malinowski: “Unfortunately no. I was not able to contact Jimmy via his son Brett who I’m friends with but I did see a TV interview Jimmy did about playing John and I credited the source and added the brief comments. And I did research an old video interview a friend of mine did with Borg many years ago where he talked about playing John and the friend did give me permission to use some of that interview for Facing McEnroe.”

Question: What do you think made John such an extraordinary champion in tennis?

Scoop Malinowski: “Love of the game. John loves to play. He still loves it today just as much. Like one player said, “Nobody loves tennis more than John.” He absolutely loves to play, loves to compete, loves to zip around the court and strike the ball. And has a very creative mind which helps him to find new and different ways to win when the regular patterns are not working. He’s a genius who applied his genius to the sport of tennis.”

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7 comments

  • Dan Markowitz · May 5, 2017 at 2:07 pm

    Great stuff, Scoop. I was with you in the Grandstand when Araton gave you that anecdote. I once heard out in the Hamptons, Mac played his neighbor and the guy couldn’t believe that Mac whipped him so badly.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 5, 2017 at 2:22 pm

    Thanks Dan that was a nice experience sitting there on grandstand with Harvey Araton and watching Hewitt vs Bernie go five sets – I hear that grandstand is now bye bye – Incredible anecdotes by Harvey about his experiences with John – Wish I interviewed that guy for the book 🙂 Wonder how good he was?

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 5, 2017 at 2:29 pm

    Sandgren is now officially surging and is into the Savannah Challenger SF with a 76 in the third win vs Laaksonen – I believe Sandgren could have locked the WC into Roland Garros with the win as Kozlov is now out having lost earlier today to Sorgi and Fratangelo is now out also losing in Estoril –

  • Dan Markowitz · May 5, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    Scoop,

    Sandgren is an interesting story/player. I don’t know if he suffered an injury earlier in his career, but yes he looks like he can maybe be a Kendricks like player. He’s only 25 and until late last year, he hadn’t broken the top 200 except for a short stint in 2014. He’s now at his career high of 134.

    Guy looks like he’d be a roadie in a band, long hair, cheesy goatee. But shows you what persistence, belief and talent can do. He’s an interesting player to watch. So far, it’s been guys like Tennys and Escobedo who have surged, two guys who no one was talking about amidst the Tiafoe’s, Kozlov’s, Donaldson’s, Fritz’s and Rubin’s.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 5, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    Interesting player and person indeed and one of the best interviews in tennis – Did have an injury that stalled his progress – I will post his Biofile in the next few days – Saw him play in Sarasota and he is a big strong fit player – He’s starting to win a lot of matches and hopefully will finally get into his first GS main draw – He’s only been in one ATP level main draw and that was Houston three weeks ago –

  • Thomas Tung · May 7, 2017 at 5:16 pm

    Sandgren was clean-shaven until the last few months, when (I guess) he decided to try out his new hairdo. Guess it’s been giving him luck, as he’s been having the best year of his entire career since then.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 7, 2017 at 5:40 pm

    T2: He kind of looks like ol Yankee relief pitcher Goose Gossage 🙂 I watched the end of Sandgren’s win today vs Sorgi and he really looks good – Solid two hander and good variety with the forehand and he can jet around the court for a pretty big guy – cleary he is super SUPER fit – Sorgi was very good too – Sorgi beat Kozlov in qualies and on the first match point he hit a lefty half volley winner after an incredible wild rally – I can see Sandgren going a few rounds in Paris –

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