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" With commentating, I've had a chance to show the humorous side of my personality that I didn't use on the court. It's fun, and I don't take myself too seriously. I have good broadcast teams with me, but I'm not a huge stats guy. I think they post the numbers too quickly, and I'd rather let the match play out a bit first. "

John McEnroe

Fun

Personality

Myself

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" I think it's the mark of a great player to be confident in tough situations. "

" Maybe I should have played two more Australians and two less Davis Cups? I could have had more majors and still have three Davis Cups when most people don't have one. "

" I used to take pride if my kids were playing basketball, and I'd be there, and I wouldn't say anything. People were obviously expecting me to yell and scream at the ref and at them and everything. I wouldn't say anything. "

" I've seen tennis clubs close in Manhattan and garages put up in their place, and I'd sure like to be part of reversing that trend. "

John McEnroe

Seen

Trend

" No one cares about the Davis Cup. How many people know I won five Davis Cups and seven majors, but that I rarely played the Australian Open? "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Women have it better in tennis than any other sport, but you shouldn't push them to play more than they're capable of playing. "

" I won't admit to having a poster of Borg on my bedroom door. But I certainly found him to be someone who got me way more into tennis. "

John McEnroe

Someone

Way

" I always got along with Borg, who was my greatest rival. People like to see me and Connors, me and Lendl, go at it. We didn't like each other. "

John McEnroe

See

Always

" What I think is frustrating for Americans is that it feels like more was going to change with Obama. "

John McEnroe

Think

Going

" I thought if I looked back and evaluated my life, it would help me in the future. "

" I like John McCain, or he seems like a cool guy in a lot of ways. I don't agree with a lot of his policies, but he still seems like a cool guy. "

" Things slow down, the ball seems a lot bigger and you feel like you have more time. Everything computes - you have options, but you always take the right one. "

" I did a terrible job of composing myself. I was a spoiled brat from Long Island who benefitted from the energy of New York. "

" My best tennis at my peak was when I played a lot of matches. "

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

" 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. "

" You have to keep persevering. An actor goes to a lot of auditions and doesn't get the part. "

" 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. "

" I would not have an event before the majors. I would build them up. It very rarely happens that a player plays the week before, wins the event, and then goes on to win the slam. "

" I believe there's only one autobiography you can do. "

" The older I get, the better I used to be. "

" There's something deeply satisfying when it succeeds, but I'm not going to do another book just to put my name on something and make some money if it's not something I deeply care about. "

" One of the things I respected about Connors was that one second he would be spewing a four-letter word, the next second he would do something that had people falling off the aisles. Yet he never seemed to lose his concentration. "

" Nadal and Roger Federer have great respect for each other. I think Novak Djokovic gets under those two guys' skin a little bit, and maybe they don't want to admit it, and I think that's, in a way, healthy. "

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

" I just remember watching Federer the first year he won Wimbledon. He was struggling with his back problem. I remember it vividly. It looked like there was a chance he was not going to finish. He had that look in his eye. Then, somehow, he found the wherewithal to dig a little deeper, and suddenly he wins the thing, and he's a different player. "

" Sometimes my negativity worked to my advantage, and early in my career, it got me going. But you need to understand that you're not just fighting opponents, you're also fighting yourself. "

John McEnroe

Fighting

Need