John McEnroe wants a hand in reviving American tennis. He wants to do it his way.
Neither of these statements should come as a surprise to anyone who has followed McEnroe's career over the last four decades - either on the court or in ''retirement,'' where he has remained every bit as fiery and unapologetic behind a microphone as he is with a tennis racquet in hand.
The day after the U.S. Open ends, McEnroe's new journey will begin in full - a journey with the ultimate goal of making sure the headline that appeared this year is never seen again: ''No American in top 10 for first time since rankings began in 1973.''
On Sept. 13, the John McEnroe Tennis Academy will officially welcome its first class at the revamped, 20-court, $18-million tennis complex on Randall's Island - a strip of land between Manhattan and Queens that also houses Icahn Stadium, where Usain Bolt set his first world record.
It's not particularly easy to get to. Then again, almost anything worth doing in New York - McEnroe's hometown and the center of the tennis universe during the U.S. Open - involves some sacrifice. And besides, nothing about Johnny Mac's journey back into the languishing grass roots of his sport has been simple.
''Hopefully, I can jolt things and get things going here again,'' McEnroe said of his goal to revive tennis in New York and, by extension, in the United States. ''Hopefully I can be a regular presence and hopefully Patrick and the USTA will support what I'm doing.''
''Patrick'' would be his youngest brother, the longtime Davis Cup captain who the U.S. Tennis Association hired two years ago to run an elite player development program that gets mixed reviews from tennis insiders. The McEnroes have similar goals, but different ideas of how to get there.
While Patrick McEnroe and the USTA enjoy the luxury of what his brother calls ''unlimited money'' - about $15 million a year for the development program - money that is sometimes used to filch players from the for-profit tennis academies, John McEnroe is starting from scratch. He's hoping to revive the youth tennis scene in New York and prove that, yes, it's still possible to build champions without sending them away to tennis camp and taking them out of their normal lives.
For a tennis prodigy, McEnroe enjoyed a relatively normal childhood. He grew up in the suburbs of New York, was schooled at Trinity on the Upper West Side, took tennis lessons at Port Washington Tennis Academy on Long Island under coach Harry Hopman - who never made tennis larger than life - then spent a year at Stanford University before going pro full-time.
Now, he is putting his own time, his own money and bringing in the middle McEnroe brother - Mark, the lawyer - to an effort he hopes will produce plenty of college players, a handful of pros and maybe, just maybe, the next American tennis champion.
''That's our bet,'' Mark McEnroe said. ''John thinks it's realistic that we can find a top-10 player.''
The odd relationship between John and Patrick has been described, in some parts of the tennis world, as a rift. The brothers, seven years apart, say family is more important than tennis, but are on record as not always seeing eye to eye.
And indeed, there are differences. Most notably:
- John thinks it's possible to become a great tennis player the way he did it back in the day - by making the sport part of a typical American childhood that includes living at home, going to a school nearby, a few football games and friends. Patrick believes in more repetition and full-time commitment, the likes of which you see at the many academies-slash-boarding schools in Florida, Texas and California.
- John has a long, well-known history of wanting to team up with the USTA to put his name behind a development program. Patrick has questions about how long John could stick with the bureaucracy that comes with the USTA.
''There's probably some skepticism on Patrick's part, as we all have, is John really going to do this?'' Mark McEnroe said. ''John wanted to do something like he's doing here at the USTA and that wasn't available.''
