Tennis legend John McEnroe’s brother, Patrick McEnroe, was shocked to learn about the state of tennis in the US. He watched the SEC men’s tennis championship match between Texas and Mississippi State on the ESPN/SEC network before being surprised.
Patrick saw 12 players but could identify only one player who was from the US. He wrote on X:
“I’m currently watching the SEC men’s tennis championship match between Texas and Mississippi State on the ESPN/SEC network. There are 12 players currently on court. 1 of them is from the United States of America.”
The Texas Longhorns secured their second straight SEC championship after defeating No. 6 Mississippi State 4-2 on Sunday at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station. This was the 10th overall conference title in the program’s history.
The players who played the championship game from each team were as follows:
Texas Longhorns
Sebastian Gorzny
Kalin Ivanovski
Sebastian Eriksson
Oliver Ojakaar
Lucas Marionneau
Abel Forger
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Benito Sanchez Martinez
Niccolo Baroni
Mario Martinez Serrano
Raphael Vaksmann
Bryan Hernandez Cortes
Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes
Michal Novansky
Among these, only Sebastian Gorzny was born and brought up in the United States. The rest of the players were from different countries, including France, Estonia, Italy and Spain. Patrick was indirectly taking a dig at the current state of college tennis, where up to 70–90% of men’s rosters are international at elite NCAA Division I programs.
John McEnroe’s Brother Predicts How Seven-time GS Champion Would Have Played Today
John McEnroe won seven Grand Slams. He was also known for often getting into trouble with the officials during the match. The 1981 Wimbledon crashout is one of the most infamous incidents that one can recall.
Recently, his brother Patrick McEnroe was asked how his brother would have turned out if he played in today’s tennis. Patrick believes John could have attained even greater heights for a simple reason.
“The bottom line is he would still be a high level tennis player,” Patrick said on the Spout Podcast. “…In some ways maybe he would actually have been better, because I think a lot of the stuff that went on, you know the controversies that surrounded him about the line calls and him getting upset now with electronic line calling it might have calmed him down a bit, he may have actually been a better player.
“You know, part of his drive was that emotion, that intensity that he brought to the court, to the match. So at the end of the day, I still think he would be really good, he would probably still get to number one in the world.”
Patrick McEnroe has also enjoyed a good tennis career, having won the French Open in doubles.
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