John McEnroe speaks with a palpable sense of regret as he reflects on his explosive demeanour in his playing days in the documentary McEnroe, which aired on Nine on Sunday night.
The American enjoyed extraordinary success on the tennis court in a career that spanned the 1970s to the 1990s, winning seven singles grand slams, claiming 10 doubles majors and soaring to the top of the rankings in singles and doubles.
He also played with an eye-catching style, serving and volleying relentlessly and manouvering the ball around the court spectacularly.
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But McEnroe is best remembered for incredible outbursts — and a lot of them.
Among his many blow-ups was a moment during the first round of the 1981 Wimbledon tournament, when a catchphrase that would transcend sport was born.
“You can’t be serious, man,” McEnroe yelled at umpire Edward James after the official called his serve out.
“You cannot be serious!
“That ball was on the line. Chalk flew up! It was clearly in. How can you possibly call that out?”
McEnroe also labelled umpires “the absolute pits of the world”, prompting the man in the chair to award a point against him.
He proceeded to dub the umpire “an incompetent fool” and stood by his comments when pressed after the match.
“A lot of the times when I was in the midst of some meltdown it felt like I was thinking a funny thing at first,” McEnroe, now 63, says in the documentary.
“I ended up saying the arsehole thing, which was really stupid.”
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Searching for answers to his madness, the documentary gives a compelling insight into McEnroe’s perfectionism, uncompromising childhood, demanding father, brilliant opponents Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and the vigour with which the press hounded him.
“What are you? A stupid, f—ing moron? I was crazed,” McEnroe recalls in the documentary.
“Nervous energy flying all over the place. Intensity. Anger.
“Mentally I became really good at being able to compartmentalise to a degree. If you watch other players in most sports … if they go off the rails it’s very difficult to pull it back in. That was one of the things that I did better than almost anyone else.”
Fellow American legend Billie Jean King marvels at the ability McEnroe had to captivate crowds.
“As an artist we shape time,” she says in the documentary.
“Also, a real, true artist makes others feel.
“He grabs the hearts of people; he just does. You may not like him, but he makes you feel.”
So volatile was McEnroe that he reveals he saw 37 therapists regarding his anger.
“Pressure made me succeed but made things torturous at times,” says McEnroe, who was widely seen as a “super brat”.
But McEnroe doesn’t have regret for all of his controversies.
After snapping Borg’s streak of five consecutive Wimbledon title triumphs in the 1981 final, McEnroe snubbed the annual Wimbledon champions dinner.
“A week later they called my parents to tell me I was not going to be granted membership at the club,” he says in McEnroe.
“Big f—ing deal.”
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