Former ATP top 60 player Gilad Bloom explained his analysis of the ed of John McEnroe’s tennis supremacy: “The switch from wood racquets made McEnroe better and helped his game – his serve got better, more power, his volleys improved, had more bite and so did his ground strokes, with the continental grip he was using the opponent’s pace, the Dunlop graphite gave his slice and his forehand a bit more weight and made it easier for him to create pace, his touch also didn’t suffer. That Dunlop graphite had a lot of touch, so the transition was easy for him.”
“In the second part of his career two things happened: 1) He took six months off and when he came back he was half a step slower. 2) The racquet material and the new strings meant that the ball was coming back harder than Mac could handle it, he was still winning tournaments on the ATP Tour and reaching semis of majors but never won a major after 1985. Guys like Lendl and Agassi, Sampras, Becker, were overpowering him – and they had youth on their side – but during 1981-1984 nobody was better or as dominant as Mac was, not even Federer had a year like Mac in 1984.”
In 1984, McEnroe, bor in February 1959, skipped Australian Open and then reached the final of French Open, losing to Ivan Lendl in five sets after a two set lead, then won Wimbledon and US Open at age 25. His last Grand Slam final was in 1985 at US Open, a loss to Lendl.
However, Novak Djokovic achieved similar if not superior dominance of the ATP World Tour in 2021 and 2023 when he won three Grand Slams in each year and was runner up in the fourth. 2021 Novak won Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and finaled at US Open and 2023 he won three major titles but lost in five sets in the Wimbledon final.
(Artwork by Karin Billings.)
Dunlop · French Open · Gilad Bloom · John McEnroe · Novak Djokovic · US Open · Wimbledon
James Foster · August 12, 2024 at 11:15 am
This is an excellent piece of writing—very informative! Well done Scoop.
Steve · August 13, 2024 at 10:25 am
Lendl is only one year younger. It wasn’t an age thing. If you remove rooting interest, Lendl was just better. More slams, more power, more modern strokes, physically superior and who could forget his win at the French over the Macster.