In 2012, we are going to try to do some different things here at BackstageAxxess. Tennis superstar John McEnroe was in Buffalo for a seniors tournament recently and we had a rare opportunity to chat with this mega superstar. The 17 Grand Slam title winner was very candid in talking to us not only about the current state of men’s tennis in the US, but John has been known to play the guitar and join others on stage for a bit of rocking out. We also talked about his current play on the seniors tour (which he ended up winning that night and followed up immediately with some questions about his performance afterwards) You are probably saying to us.. BackstageAxxess “You cannot be serious with this interview? Yes we are and it was definitely in!
Gus: What is the current state of US mens tennis?
John: It’s pretty good but we had a lot of success in the past. We are spoiled and there were some great rivals or rivalries. Me and Connors and Sampras and Agassi are the two most obvious. Perhaps we sat back a bit resting on our laurels. Other countries have put more into it; meaning their best athletes and you can see that. Hopefully we can snag few from playing football or basketball and get them in tennis. We have our work cut out for us but we got some real solid players. We have top ten player and guy who will be in the Hall of Fame in (Andy)Roddick. A couple of guys are doing well but we want to see them wining majors. All in all it’s not as bad as people make it out to be. There is no doubt we need to think outside of the box and do a lot more.
Gus: What do you think about the US Open talking about their final going from a Sunday to a Monday format?
John: I don’t think they should accentuate the tournament but if they ended a week earlier it would be Labor Day weekend. We only talked about that for 30 years, so maybe in another 30 it will happen. That seemed to make sense before the football seasons starts and on that Monday when people are getting back to work that seems fantastic. That would require for it to move up a week and it doesn’t seem like there are many people in the U.S.T.A. that want to see that happen. I think it would be good for Tennis to give these guys a day off and Monday night when it can be all our own, but we will wait and see. In the meantime they should at least give the guys a day a rest before the semi’s or finals but we have been talking about that since my first semi’s in 1978. This has been going on for a long time.
Gus: John was talking about Niagara Falls when I asked him: Your wife (Patty Smyth with Scandal) will be playing here next week (the show was on Nov 5th, 2011.) Did you know that?
John: (laughs) I did know that. Maybe I can stroll up here with her but we have a couple kids at home. I know she’s pumped up about it because I just spoke to her about an hour ago and she said ” Oh yeah I’m playing there next week!” Well that’s good that you know. It will be fun for her. She still likes to get out there and sings great so it will be cool!
Gus: What about you playing?
John: I don’t get a lot of invites from her (laughs.) I did see Buddy Guy last night in St. Louis and Buddy and I go back about 30 years. I played with him and jammed with him a number of times. He’s a legend and said if he known I was there he would have demanded that I would have come up so I’m thankful he didn’t see me until the show wrapped up. You would have seen the crowd running out of the arena when I have to deal with the likes of Buddy Guy. I like to play. I play with friends. I play the guitar as much as possible, every day if I could. Not when I’m on the road. It’s fun for me and the more I learned over the years the more I play the guitar the more I appreciate my Tennis (laughs!)
After the matches were over which John won I grabbed him real quick for 2 questions.
Gus: Congratulations!
John: Well, I won something so it’s coming along and getting all the way back.
Gus: What happened with that last point? Thought they were playing joke on you (the ball apparently appeared in and he won then later the ref called it out.)
John: So did I. I started having nightmares. I thought it was joke and luckily he missed the return.
Gus: So what can we expect from you next year? Will you participating in something like this again?
John: I think it’s going to happen. Hopefully I got one more really good chance and I can be ready from the beginning and it’s a good format for me.
Gus: Thanks for taking the time.
John: Thanks!
We would like to thank Tracey Mancini at the First Niagara Center for the accreditations, Dave Fanucchi for the time with John, Antoinette Bryant from YNN for the feed, and Peter J. Figura for the quick photo of me and John.
