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" I was a different kind of player as a kid and didn't do too much shouting and screaming. If things didn't go my way, I tended to get a bit overwhelmed. All I wanted to do was cry on my mom's shoulder. I didn't know how to handle defeat in front of a crowd, and I didn't want to be the loser. "

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" I haven't seen a professional player come out of New York in over 20 years since my brother Patrick came out. Blake spent a few years in Harlem, but he moved to Connecticut when he was a kid. "

John McEnroe

Brother

Professional

Kid

" I went to play in Brazil when I had just turned 18 and was the world's top junior player. I got to the airport, and no one knew who I was. I couldn't speak any Portuguese, and no one spoke English. Then someone said something that resembled 'tennis,' and I went with that. "

" If you look at the top 100 players, you would see that the great majority of them have had at least a couple of surgeries. That tells me that we have to protect the players. "

" It's only human nature to want to know what you can do on your own or with someone else. "

" Well I think that's probably one of a few, where I grew up in the City of New York, it's got a lot of energy, my parents are Irish-American so there was a bit of yelling going on in my house but it seemed normal. "

" As I got older and started moving up the ranking, the matches got more important, and my emotions ratcheted up. I guess I hid my real feelings behind the anger. "

" The greatest compliment I ever got was when people called me an artist, and I understand that solo aspect of being an artist, when you're in there by yourself, trying to do something great, and people who don't even know you can come up and just dump on you. "

" It means a lot to be back in New York. Particularly since one of the last senior event scheduled in the States was supposed to be here in New York. We were supposed to play in Central Park right after 9-11 and when 9-11 happened obviously things changed. "

" I was always fighting the establishment, trying to run through brick walls. "

" The perception is I didn't get along with umpires, obviously, and I didn't, on the court. But off the court, we had a good vibe. "

" I can't speak for other people, but I still hate losing. When I did lose, I found it easier to yell than to cry. Guys aren't supposed to cry, are they? "

" Look at Becker and Djokovic. If you look at Novak's record since Boris has been there, it's been phenomenal. "

" The only thing 'championship' about Wimbledon is its prestige. "

" I went on safari in South Africa just after apartheid had ended. "

" I had a similar year back in 1984 when I felt like I couldn't lose. "

" The mistake, if I made one, in the late 1980s, was thinking I needed to change my game. "

" Roland Garros is the only one of the four majors that is 15 days, and that is too long. "

" I'm going to vote for Obama. I'm going for the change. "

" Nadal is one of the great champions - a class act. "

" London is great, but New York is the greatest city in the world. "

" When I felt I was rejected by my first wife, and she said, 'Some day you will thank me for this,' you know what? I do. And so, sometimes it is darkest before the dawn. You can think it is bleak and you can't see. You never know. "

" The sting of losing is bad. "

" I like to be close to water and the ocean, particularly. I love to get out and body surf. I like mountain biking, too. "

John McEnroe

Mountain

Love

" I don't take myself as seriously as I did when I was playing, and it works, and I think people see the self-deprecation in my commentary. "

" I'd like to be the commissioner of tennis, but do I want to get into politics? Sometimes I have delusions of grandeur that that would be an interesting, good thing. I'm talking about actual politics, like being a congressman, but then I see how unbelievably nasty it really is, and maybe I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to actually do it. "

" I'm generally happy, although my kids and wife may sometimes argue with that. "

" I'm sure a lot of players say it, but winning is almost so you don't lose. The thrill of winning is not as great as the pain of losing. "

" When I was eight and a half, my parents moved to a part of Queens where there was a club nearby. We joined, and if you believe in someone up above, I think I was meant to play tennis. "

" There was a line call that didn't look so great. I went ballistic. Called the umpire a jerk. Whacked a ball into the stands. Then smacked a soda can with my racket, and got soda all over the King of Sweden, who was sitting in the front row. "

" I don't think enough players channel the energy of the crowd. If it's done properly, and you don't let anger overwhelm and distract you, it's like a shot of adrenaline in the arm, and it gets the crowd pumped up. "