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Mac Talks, Part 1

John McEnroe participated in a conference call with members of the media May 19. McEnroe is tied for first place in the senior tour's Nuveen Masters Point Standings and will be playing in three of the circuit's next five events. Following are highlights of McEnroe's conference call:

On the French Open

"The biggest disappointment of my career, if you had to pick one, would be the French Open, that 84 match. But at the same time, the first six years of my career, I really didn't take the French Open very seriously. It wasn't a tournament that was considered anywhere near the level of Wimbledon or the U.S. Open."

"For Americans coming up, you didn't hear about the French. It was like a distant third. And it was very difficult to prepare for the French. You had to go to Europe like four, five weeks ahead of the French to get used to the surface, or you had to sort of hope that your game was on. It was more of a crap shoot. You had to rely on playing great tennis and your ability to let you deal with these clay-courters who get a lot of balls back."

"I couldn't get over the hump against the truly great clay court players; the Lendls, the Wilanders, in particular. I must have had three or four losses to each of them. I wasn't able to get over the hump in the matches that would have helped me win a couple of titles had I been able to do so. That's disappointing because I really feel I could have won that tournament."

On American players' chances at the French

"The surface they play on in Europe is different than what they play on here. There's not as many facilities available over here to prepare to play on that surface. And I don't think that people realize, fans or media alike, the differences in the surfaces."

"There's only a few guys that you could really imagine going two weeks and winning an event like the French. There's not a lot of guys you can pick"

On this year's French Open

"Other than Rios, perhaps, assuming he's recovered from the injury, I don't see anyone that's stepped up to the plate who feels like in their heart, they're going to win this thing. Players like Muster and Brugera, I don't think that deep down they believe they can do it any more."

"The Spanish players that have been around, they've had a tendency to choke up in the French. It's certainly been difficult for the Americans. Michael's been struggling for quite a while now. Pete has been up and down. I'm sure he'll tell you he hasn't been thrilled with his year."

"This to me is Rios' tournament to win or loose. The stars have been aligned that he should win this if he buckles down and plays to his ability. At the moment, it appears to me that he should win this."

"Andre has certainly taken a big step in the right direction. Fitness is still a question mark as far as I'm concerned. He's certainly lost a lot of weight, but whether that can translate into winning seven matches on clay, that's a totally different story. He's kind of banking on what he did six or eight years ago when he just shows up and beats players. I don't think it's going to be as easy for him to do that. He better hope he has a pretty good draw."

On playing on clay

"The only reason I like playing on clay now at this stage of my career is that it's a little bit easier on my body. Other than that, I think it's for the birds. I don't think the best tennis is played. I don't think that clay court tennis should ever be equal of what it is indoors or on hard court surfaces."

"Most of the people who are making the decision are Europeans who like to play on clay. I don't think that's in the best interests of the sport."

"I can see why the average person who goes out and plays a couple days a week would prefer to play on clay. I think there's some thing to be said about that. But I always make the analogy that if you saw the NBA finals on clay, you would not see the same type of basketball. You would see a lot of people slipping and sliding and people falling down and the quality would drop. And that's what you have in tennis."

"Counter punchers and pushers, people who can sit back and wait have a better chance and ultimately, I don't think that's in a sport's best interest. That's like watching Princeton play basketball in the NCAAs every year. Every game is like 38-35. I don't think that's what the college people had in mind for the finals of the NCAAs."

On Rios becoming number one

"I think it's a great accomplishment that he reached number one on the computer but that was also like March 15th or whatever it was. That's like saying, "I've seen times where the Sacramento Kings started the season at 10-2, but they don't say they're the best team in the NBA.

I think Rios has come a long way and like I said, I think the French Open is his to win. But you can't tell me that Pete Sampras isn't considered the number one player right now. After the French, the U.S. Open and Wimbledon have taken place, then if Pete hasn't won any of those and Rios has won one or two of them, then you can say something different, but at this point, it's an insult to Pete, and it shows that this computer thing needs to be worked on."

"It's misleading, but I still think he (Rios) should be proud of the effort. There's only been 12 or 13 people who have been number one at any point, so he can look at that, but he's still got a lot of work to do if he wants to consider himself a number one."

"I like his game. He's very unusual. He's a south American, but he takes the ball on the rise. He has the ability to use angles. Most of the times, you see guys standing, hitting a lot of moon balls and pushing, and he doesn't do that. I like the way he plays."

"I still think that we need him to be a little bit more of a positive force. I think he should realize that things aren't all that bad. He's a guy from Santiago Chile, who even now is ranked number three in the world. That's a hell of an accomplishment but he doesn't seem all that pleased about that."

On his role in Marcelo Rios' association with coach Larry Stefanki

"I tried to bridge the gap when Marcelo and Larry parted ways. I didn't speak a lot to Rios early on. He doesn't have much to say. I'm not around him on a regular basis."

I think Larry paid his dues on the way up. And it's well deserved. He's done a great job with Rios. Very infrequently will you see a south American with an American."

"I don't see anything, because he plays his game. But what I see is that Larry is so excitable and so into it that mentally, that's where it's paid off. I think Larry just constantly talking to him and pushing him has forced him to accept the responsibility of how good he is.

Just being around Larry has forced Rios to try harder more often. Rios, like a couple of other guys had the tendency to throw in the towel. And he has not thrown in the towel from what I can recall, almost the last year or so. Just the effort level is huge."

"The only thing we have in common is the obvious thing that we have in common, the ability to take the ball early and the ability to use angles. Other than that, he plays nothing like I do, as far as I'm concerned."

Part 2 next issue

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