Today, ESPN tennis analysts John and Patrick McEnroe spoke with media about the US Open, which starts Monday, August 26, with extensive coverage from ESPN (release).  

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For ESPN / US Open Pictures:  https://library.espnimages.com/pages/collections.php?collection=6558

Although the upcoming US Open and the leading contenders were discussed, other topics included:

• The state of doubles in the tennis world (“On life support” – John) and the Bryan Brothers’ place in history
• The state of American tennis – John saying we need to recruit better athletes or we’ll be seeing 7-footers on the court
• What it takes for top juniors to be top pros.  Patrick:  “This idea that you can get to the top just because you were a great junior or won a lot of the juniors is just a complete myth.”
• The state of Roger Federer’s game and the decisions he needs to make regarding his racquet, scheduling, motivation and tactics
• The state of the serve-and-volley game and its future, especially given the difficulty in convincing youngsters to adopt it, thanks to improved technology.  John:  “Now you got kids six, eight, whatever, I see them at my academy all over the place, that swing for the fences… Totally discouraged at even the thought of coming to net because the point is over before they get there.  They don’t even get the strategy or buildup of the idea of positioning yourself to move forward. “
• Will we ever see a male teenager win a Major? (Both say maybe, but not anytime soon.)

Q. Hello gentlemen.  I’m curious, I guess this is more for John, but you can both jump in, yesterday when we were chatting with Cliff Drysdale, the question came up of the disappearance of the serve and volley game, the true serve and volleyer.  Cliff essentially declared it history.  You’ll never see the Edberg types, Sampras types again.  Thoughts on that John?  Is it going away and why? 

JOHN McENROE:  I think that obviously there are a lot of factors.  The racquets is one; the strings; the courts are slower in general. But if you’ve noticed at the US Open, the court plays fairly quickly.  I think it would be a perfect court for someone like Sampras or Edberg, myself to some degree, to be able to do their thing on the quicker court.

All you have to do is make very subtle, minor changes to the rules, whether it would be balls or speed of the court, and it would become much more advantageous for someone who is accomplished at net to do well.

When I’m asked this question, it always makes me think back to when Wimbledon was all about serve, and Pete was winning, Boris, and Goran Ivanisevic who are the three biggest servers I’ve seen.  Suddenly the game became a baseline game where Lleyton Hewitt was playing Nalbandian, and I would have bet everything, my house, that you would never see that type of tennis in the men’s game, where all the players are staying back.

So to presume that something won’t change where they might do something I think is a mistake.  I think ideally the best tennis is when you have two different styles going at it.  People enjoy that more than a lot of players playing mainly the same way.  So I’m hopeful in the next five to ten years that the powers that be recognize that so that you’ll see more variety.

Q. Another thing that you would be an expert on, and that would be doubles with the Bryan brothers coming up on possible Grand Slam here in doubles.  Doubles is kind of disappearing, and so many of the top players don’t play doubles anymore.  Your thoughts on that and the Bryans. 

JOHN McENROE:  I think, first of all, the Bryans are doing a great job trying to prop up doubles.  Without them it would be in even worse shape than it is.  They can only play who is in front of them.  They’ve done a great job, especially this year.  Even if they’re 35, I believe, and have won so many events and are trying to hone in on the slam.

As far as doubles, it’s on life support.  At this stage, it’s been proven by the singles players that there is no real advantage for them to play doubles.  Roger doesn’t play much doubles, although I think it propelled him to a US Open win in 2008.  When he won the doubles at the Olympics, it gave him confidence using some net play that he took advantage of winning the Open that year.

I think that the singles players could play doubles.  It’s like if someone said to me, Who would you want to play doubles with if you could pick somebody?  The top of my list would be these guys, Roger, Rafa, Novak.  I think that those guys could potentially be great doubles players if they put their mind to it.  Having said that, at this stage told maybe they would be better off trying to start something on their own to show that it’s viable or doable that people would support it. 

Otherwise, to me, you’ve got a lot of guys that very, very few, if any, people know them.  Not even in the tennis world a lot of these guys are known.  So I don’t have a good answer.  I know that it helped me play better singles working on my doubles game, especially as a kid, learning how to volley there when you’re too small to cover the net game.

And it’s a shame.  It’s a great game.  Certainly as you older and can’t move as well you only have to cover half the court, so you can still show what you’re made of in away or the hands you had or the advantages you can bring to the table. 

But at this stage, they’ve tried a lot of different things, none of which seem to work.  Shorten them, tiebreakers at the end, whatever they may do, but at this stage it’s difficult to get the singles players ‑‑ especially at a major.

Sometimes you see them go to a Cincinnati or a Montreal and play a match or two, but they’re just honing themselves for the singles.  Until there is a real change in the game where volleys become more of a premium or strategy or positioning at the net or moving forward comes into play more, I don’t think you’re going to see many, if at all, of the top players playing doubles. 

Q. Patrick, I just saw where Mardy Fish has pulled out of Open.  In Ohio last week he had a press conference, and he was clearly struggling psychologically with his health issues and everything.  Any thoughts on that?

PATRICK McENROE:  This is the first I’ve heard of that.  I knew Mardy had pulled out of his match yesterday because of heat down in Winston‑Salem.  I’m a huge fan of his.  He played for me as Davis Cup captain.

I just feel is bad for him.  To me, he finally got himself into a position where he maximized what he had as a player, which I think he didn’t do for many years.  Finally did that and got himself to the year‑end championships, which was sort of a lifetime dream for him.

Unfortunately, from that point on he was never really able to continue that.  Obviously he has had a lot of issues health‑wise and otherwise, which he’s talked a little bit about.  I just feel bad for him, because I know how hard he worked and how dedicated he became to become a top‑10 player. 

And there is no doubt in my mind that over the last couple of years he still could have been a top‑10 player, or very close to it, and arguably the U.S.’s best player for the last couple years.

From a selfish standpoint I’m disappointed, but more that than disappointed for Mardy.  He always answered the bell for Davis Cup through all the years.  Sometimes being a practice player, doubles player, and a main player.  So he did whatever I asked him to do.  Not that many guys would do that at his level.   I just wish him the best, and I hope he can be healthy. 

Q. (Question was hard to hear but concerned the current state of tennis among American men.)

PATRICK McENROE:  Well, I only caught the tail end of what you had to say, but I can pretty much surmise …Obviously we’re in a little bit of a rough go with our top men at the moment.  We’re well aware of that.  We’ve been well aware was that for a number of years, even before Andy Roddick retired, which obviously surprised us all; before what happened to Mardy Fish, et cetera.

But we’re starting to feel some more optimism about some of our younger guys coming up.  Obviously overall we need better athletes and more kids in the pipeline.  We need to get the racquets into hands of more kids and more athletic kids just as a general statement.

So we’re working hard to do that, and we’re partnering with local programs around the country.  You know, it’s a huge project.  John knows about it now.  He’s been in the game with his academy the last couple years. 

While we’re quite happy with where we are with the young women, and we think we’ve got a lot of really great young women coming up and also a lot of really good women coming up, we would like to see the same in the men, no doubt.

We’ve got some work to do, but we think we’re starting to see some signs with some of the younger guys and some better kids, younger that are juniors that are in the pipeline, that will be able to get double digit numbers of players in the top 100, too.

From there, obviously hopefully get a player that’s top 10, top 5, and a potential Grand Slam winner.  Obviously Isner doing well the last couple weeks has been nice to see that he’s starting to fulfill his potential.  Hopefully he can make a run in New York.  I think some of younger guys, like Harrison and Sock and Kudla and Steve Johnson, they’re starting to train together a lot more and work a lot harder.  I think we’ll see them start to step up soon as well. 

Q. Obviously this is the worst season Roger Federer has had at the Open in over a decade.  Curious as to what you guys think he can do on the court to compensate for the fact that as he’s getting older he may be losing speed and power. 

JOHN McENROE:  He’s in a tough predicament obviously because he’s so great that it’s going to be mentally difficult for him to deal with what his results have been this year.  Obviously when you get into your 30s tennis takes its toll and physically starts to slow you down.  Those injuries crop up a little bit more often and they take a little bit longer to get over. 

So he’s got to be real careful about picking his spots and trying to peak at the big events.   He tried to do that, but was off in Wimbledon and lost early.  Then there is a little idea of whether or not his racquet was too small.  So there was possibly a thought that maybe I should go to ‑‑ I’m speaking for him and others, including myself, well, at least think about this or maybe try to go so something a little bit bigger.   That’s hard to do also when you’ve been playing so long with the same racquet, to go to a bigger frame.  There is a fine line between a slight dose of concern and panic where you want to get back on track because you’re so used to succeeding at such a high level, higher than anyone has ever done and consistently ever done, that he started to make some decisions playing Hamburg, going to Gstaad, where they backfired a little bit, because instead of gaining matches he lost a tiny bit of confidence.

So these things steamrolled.  Of course he’s always been a hard worker that prepares well for the big events.  Went 36 straight majors getting to the quarters or better, so clearly he’s a guy that will be tougher to beat in a longer match because he knows what that takes.  He’s got to take a deep breaths.  He’s the 7 seed, so he could play obviously Djokovic, Nadal, or Murray in the quarters.  One of those three likely.  Possibly Ferrer, who is 4.

Then to me, he’s got to take it a step at a time.  He’s never lost to Ferrer, so if he went into a Ferrer quarter I think he’s 14‑0 lifetime.  So then you’re in the semis and the pressure is off a little bit. 

So there are certainly scenarios where he could easily still get late into an event and even to a final.  Andre got to the final of the Open at 35, so there’s no reason to believe he couldn’t do it. 

To me, it’s obviously going to be a lot more difficult at this stage.  I don’t see at this stage him being able to go through all seven and have to beat at least two of these three guys.  Maybe he would use that type of thing as incentive.  When you’ve won 17, you clearly think you can win another one. To me, there comes a point, even as great as Roger has been for so many years, that it catches up to you a little bit. 

Q. Are we at that point now?  Can he win another Grand Slam? 

JOHN McENROE:  Me personally, I think he’s still going to be at events.  At Wimbledon I could see him going late into an event, a final.  I could see it on a hard court and he had positioned himself with a semi and a quarter the first couple ‑‑ not like he was that far off, but I personally think that at this stage it’s going to be quite, quite difficult for him to win another one. 

These guys are hungry.  There’s other guys that want get on the board.  He’s 32.  He’s going to have to at some stage decide how bad he wants it if he does dip lower in the world.  I doubt he’ll enjoy being in that spot.  All these factors are going to start to come into it.  Now, he can shut everyone up if he was able to go all the way at the Open and he could still keep himself in the running ‑‑ you know, people are talking about he won’t finish the year strong ‑‑ possibly finishing as one of the top couple players.  But at this stage, I think you’re looking at the other three battling for No. 1 this year.  One of those three guys is gonna get the second major.

PATRICK McENROE:  I would never underestimate Federer, in general underestimate greatness.  I think there is certainly a chance he could pull it off.  It’s not going to get any easier.  Grass, to me, would still be his best chance because there aren’t the as many players just in general as comfortable on grass. 

Not only does he have to worry about the big three guys, who I think all three would be ‑‑ there is no doubt they’d be favorites against him on a hard court, and even more of a favorite I think in best‑of‑five simply because they’re younger.  But I think there are also a bunch guys, like Berdych, who is up to No. 5;Del Potro, guys like that.  The fear factor Roger had for so long is not quite as strong as it was.  That’s inevitable.  We saw Berdych beat him last year at the Open.

So I just think it’s more likely that he could be picked off early now.  Then you combine that with the fact that, as John said, have to beat two or possibly three of those top three guys.  I mean, to me, a lot of things have to fall into place for him not just to win it, but to get to the final. 

Q.  If you don’t mind staying on the same topic, I too am interested in Federer.  So for either one of you, two quick questions:  First, when you look at his recent losses, are there specific aspects of Roger’s game that you see falling off or are vulnerable in a way that it hasn’t been in the past?  If so, could you pinpoint some of those?  Or is it more just the next generation of players is presenting him with things he can’t handle?

JOHN McENROE:  Let me give it a shot.  I think one of the things you notice a little bit is possibly he’s slowed down a little bit.  The balance and the movement are not quite as Nureyev like as they were in the past.  So he’s reaching for more balls and therefore miss‑hitting more shots.  It doesn’t seem like he’s been able or willing to make that adjustment where he’s got to either play safer or take that extra step to balls.  That’s very difficult to do as you get older.  One of the obvious things would be to say he hired Annacone.  Why?  You would presume that’s because he was an attacking player who knows a thing or two about moving forward and playing at net. 

So that he got a little bit older he would want to shorten points, to attack more.  What it appears to me is that he doesn’t believe in his movement well enough.  That first quick step you got to take to take advantage of a ball, especially how hard as they guys hit it.

So he doesn’t seem that will to try for it, although I saw him do it a couple times in Cincinnati.  But clearly he would need to keep points shorter, but to be, in my book, a little bit safer.  He’s so used to being able to go big and hit pretty much everything he wants.  And part of why he’s so great is because he’s stubborn and he believes in himself, so he’s unwilling to change a whole lot.

At this stage, it’s difficult to know whether that would succeed, but it certainly would seem to be worth trying.  We’ll have to wait and see what he tries to do if and when he plays like a Murray, Djokovic, Nadal in the quarter.  We’ll see if he’s going to alter his game or still say, I believe my game is better than yours. 

So far what I’ve seen mentally is he’s not willing to admit he’s got to do anything even subtlety different.  To me ‑‑ I’m just totally guessing ‑‑ but when you get to a Hamburg or Gstaad and all of a sudden you’re in these matches, maybe he wasn’t even sure how much he wanted to be there when all is said and done.  He was trying a new racquet.   I wouldn’t take a whole lot from that other than he was trying to make up for some perhaps playing a couple extra matches.  I think that was a bit of a mistake, because it sort of possibly dented a little further his confidence level.  He didn’t want that.  It’s easy to be a back‑seat driver, but he would’ve been better off to me playing just Montréal and Cincinnati. 

Q. Patrick, this is kind of looking ahead to the future at the point when Roger does retire.  Could you speak to what aspects of his game will we not likely see again?

PATRICK McENROE:  Very interesting question.  Let me follow up a little bit, because something struck me about what my brother said that I think is interesting to add on to what he said. 

I wasn’t a great player like my brother was and Federer was, but I think there is an element of what John was talking about when someone as good as Federer has been and sort of had that swagger that he’s had, which he deserves, throughout his career, if he does make some significant changes, then in a way ‑‑ and I think in the mentality of that great player, you’re sort of admitting ‑ I’m not going to say failure ‑ but that you need to do something differently. 

I think that’s really hard for a tennis player to do, because so much of what goes on in a tennis match is that self‑belief and confidence.  Walking out on the court when you opponent feels that you feel like you’re unbeatable or you know how good you are. 

So I think there is a really interesting dynamic in play there with Roger, which is do I ‑‑ even by trying a different racquet ‑‑ and this is where I can relate.  I, as a guy ranked 30 or 40 in the world would think, Wow, Roger went to a different racquet.  Maybe I have a chance now.  Maybe he doesn’t believe in what he’s doing.

As far as the second question goes, to me, in the last 25, 30 years of playing, watch being, et cetera, Federer was the best combination of offense and defense that we’ve ever seen.  I think he’s lost a little bit of his defensive skills because of speed of the game and the fact that he’s 32. 

Because of the game, as John talked about, he’s not as confident in his offensive skills.  Paul Annacone was a chip and charger and came in on everything.  Well, Federer is not going to do that.  Even though some of is say he should do that, he should come to net more.  He was never a high‑risk player.  He was a very meticulous player and a player whose game was based around timing, movement, playing defense when he had to, and playing a precision offensive game.  Not just overwhelming power game like Sampras.  More precision game.  So now that his precision is a little bit off he’s a lot more vulnerable. 

Q. Big topic this summer of course is Roger possibly going up to the bigger racquet.  Can you talk about that racquet, your feeling for it, what you thought when others were going to different technologies, and what would happen in tennis if the powers that be said we’re going to stick with traditional materials like baseball did for the racquet?

JOHN McENROE:  That’s on old argument that ended.  I think we made a mistake.  But having said that, it’s over now.  It’s not going to go back.  It was a great time playing.  I will tell you one time I was playing with my brother getting ready for an event in Dallas.  He had switched to like the Max 200G, which was the next step up from me. 

I remember picking up one of his racquets and going ‑ this is when I stubbornly stuck to the wood racquet and thought it was tradition and better for me and better for the game.  Picked that up and immediately felt like I was 10, 15% better.  Played the tournament in Dallas, which was a big event at the time, and won it.  Beat Ivan like 7‑6 in the fifth.  It was a huge success, and ended up going right to that racquet and feeling an improvement.

So it doesn’t automatically mean it’s not going to work.  Later in my career I tried other racquets because I felt like I needed more power.  I would call it panic as well.  I talked a little bit about what may be happening a slight bit with Roger. 

Mine to a greater degree when and Sampras and Becker came up.  Remembering or looking back thinking I shouldn’t have changed or even thought about changing my game.  I should’ve honed what I already had.

Lesson learned.  Hindsight is 20/20.  Roger is going through a position with so many great wins and so many majors that he’s certainly entitled and should explore a few different possibilities and not worry about what people think.

Yes, I think Patrick is correct that the intimidation or fear factor is not quite the same.  I can assure you if he plays his A game, there are not a whole of people now that could stick with him in a best‑of‑five, and that he would still provide a lot of problems for almost everybody. 

So I think that ultimately he should sort of tinker test, but most of all, he should steadily feel like, Look, is this ‑‑ it appears so far he still loves to do it and he has every right to do it as long as he wants to. 

That’s the bigger issue, is how he’s going to handle this mentally.  This position he’s going to be in, as all these changes or the years have taken place.  He may feel like the strings pass him by like I felt the racquets, the power racquets passed me by. 

Who knows?  Anything can change quickly.  Seems to me he would give it a couple more years before he decides to stop. 

Q. And Patrick, two quick and kind of tough questions.  If you had to name one player whose name wasn’t Serena Williams who is going to win a major who is American, who would that be?  Secondly, with all your work in player development, if you had to give advice to a teenager coming up and wants to make it in tennis, what would that one piece of advice be? 

PATRICK McENROE:  Well, first of all, I think obviously on the women’s side, other than Serena, I mean, I think Sloane Stephens would be the first one that comes to mind.  She’s getting close.  She’s close to the top 10.  She’s done well in the big tournaments, so she should sort of be No. 1. 

Madison Keys I think has shown a lot of big game potential, so she would be No. 2.  Isner, is he capable of winning a major?  Got to prove he could get to a semi first.  He will certainly be the guy on the men’s side at the moment.

And you know, maybe with a lot of work and a lot more improvement, you know, a Ryan Harrison or a Jack Sock.  They’re a couple years away from that being a realistic possibility.  Obviously a lot has to happen between now and then.  I do think there are some younger ones that are possibilities, but I think they’re too young to mention their names at this point.

I think the bit of advice would be ‑‑ I’m not sure if my advice or anyone’s advice could make the difference, but I will say this:  You better have an unbelievable passion for the game and love the process and sort of love the pain, you know. 

This idea that you can get to the top just because you were a great junior or won a lot of the juniors is just a complete myth. 

So at every level you have to really love the game, love to play, love to compete, and you have to be able to accept winning and losing.  There is no great player that’s comes up that doesn’t take their lumps on their way up.

So I’m not sure anyone’s advice can teach that.  I think what you can do is sort of teach them about what the path is to get there and how smartly you have to work, how hard you have to work, and how you have to always try to get better and try to improve.

Look at Nadal.  I mean, the guy is an incredible example of someone as good as he is, all he wants to do is try to get better.  Yes, he likes to win, but I think he’s one of the incredible examples in our sport of someone that really genuinely likes the battle and likes to try to find ways to improve his game.

Obviously he likes to win, too.  To me, that’s not his primary intention; for some great players it is.  That’s fine, too.  That worked for Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras and people like that.  But I think Nadal enjoys the process as much as anybody.

Q. And you said you can’t skip a single step.

PATRICK McENROE:  Well, I don’t think you can.  Look at the way the men ‑‑ even the best young male players at 18, 19, are taking a couple years before they can make a move.  I think the interesting question for us ‑ and I would like to hear John’s thoughts on this ‑ is do you ever think we’ll see a 19 year old win a major again on the men’s side?  On the women’s side it certainly can happen.

But at men’s side, is there another Nadal out there?  He did it, and he’s sort of the last guy to do it.  My guess would be there certainly could be, but even the best young prospects now, like a Harrison or Dimitrov, Raonic, those guys, they’re not at the level of Djokovic and Federer and Nadal.  But even for those guys to make their way up the rankings is taking a lot longer than it used to. 

Q.  I have a couple questions both for John and Patrick.  Back to serve and volley.  Is it harder to learn to play that game in this time and why?  Are kids discouraged?

JOHN McENROE:  I think it may be because the court is bigger.  In my day most players used wood racquets and you couldn’t hit the ball, little kids couldn’t hit the ball that hard.  Now you got kids six, eight, whatever, I see them at my academy all over the place, that swing for the fences, try to hit every ball.  One out of three go in.  Totally discouraged at even the thought of coming to net because the point is over before they get there.  They don’t even get the strategy or buildup of the idea of positioning yourself to move forward. 

Quite honestly, until recently, even now, they’re way more comfortable hitting groundstrokes.  The strings that are used today are better far groundstrokes than they are for volleys.  You’re rewarded for swinging harder, so that as you get older you’re sort of forced to use lighter frames and swing harder.  That’s where the game is now.

The feeling at the net is not the same, so there is a discouragement there.  Thankfully this 10‑Under tennis that Patrick has endorsed and I have as well, I think could swing the pendulum back in the favor of the kid that could learn good technique and volleying skills.  You shorten the court.  If you do come to net they don’t lob over your head, which little kids have trouble with, and even kids at a higher level would. 

They can deal with the strategies and advantages that could come from learning how to be at net.  So this is an important time in tennis to me, so that this volleying don’t become an afterthought. 

I think part of why Nadal’s gotten better is he’s learned to have some great volleying skids.  I think it’s hurt Roger.  I do think he’s an good as Nadal is, for example.  I don’t think he is as sure of himself at net as he would like to be.  Djokovic and Murray have both improved their net play.  This is no coincidence.  

So I’m hopeful that these skills will be worked on by coaches and employed at an early age.  It is a tough skill.  They always sort of mock us.  I find it sort of ‑ well, I don’t know if annoyed would be the right word ‑ but just make it sounds like all the other players in the past were bums; they couldn’t move at all; they weren’t fit.  You going to tell me Borg wasn’t one of greatest athletes ever?  Sampras was a lot better athlete, but he’s not as good an athlete as Roger Federer.  I just don’t agree with that aspect. 

I think Becker was one of the all‑time greatest grass court players that ever played.  I think sometimes it’s a little bit unfair that the players of the past have been sort of dumped on, more or less, saying that it’s so much more physical, the game.  There is some truth at a certain level, the lower ranked players I believe generally are better athletes and certainly the ball is being struck harder. 

It’s a little bit unfair.  I mean, you look at Patrick’s previous answer.  These players, to me, aren’t in the same league as the players we’ve been fortunate enough to watch.  The Nadals.  There will be another guy that comes along like Nadal.  It may not be more for a while.  That is why he is one of the greatest players that ever lived. 

Boris Becker was a truly great player, or Agassi who won early or Pete Sampras.  All these guys won at 19, 20, and now we’re assuming that it’s impossible. 

I just don’t think it’s impossible.  I think it could be more difficult.  Believe me, someone is gonna come along and they’re going to blow by all these guys that we’re all waiting for.  We just don’t see that person yet.  It’s going to happen.  In my opinion.

Just think these guys took it for granted, Dimitrov or Raonic, you know, whoever we’ve been talking about.  Janowicz has pretty much come out of nowhere.  He’s got top five potential.  So someone else is going to come along.  You’ll be like, What?  Where did he come from?   I’ll be interested to see what happens the next five years.  I think you’ll see something unexpected. 

Q. We had Chang and Sampras and Courier and Agassi and even guys like David Wheaton and Todd Martin.  You would think that would lead to a stronger class of guys in the pipeline because they saw that success.  You follow the leaders.  The opposite seems to have happened.  Why do you think that is? 

PATRICK McENROE:  We both have strong feelings and opinions on this.  No one wants to see more Americans more than we do.  The fact is that you got to look at it from a couple angles.  The obvious ones are more of the rest of the world is playing tennis now.  That’s number one.  That’s just a fact.  So no one country is going to have half the top 100 players. 

Obviously France and Spain on the men’s side have the most at the moment.  We have the most on the women’s side.  But the reality is that it is tougher to get there.  As John has been talking about, we need better athletes and we need them to push each other. 

So that’s what we’re constantly trying to do.  I think within the next couple years you’ll see a lot more numbers coming through and a lot more players like that.  Then, again, whether we can find those ones that can get to the promised land, nobody has the answer to that.  No coach, expert, anybody has the answer to that.

As John said, a lot of times it’s greatness, and great players come out of nowhere or develop on their own.  But we’re certainly trying to do everything we can to make the overall level of play in the pipeline stronger. 

JOHN McENROE:  I think that you could see a 7‑footer come along.  We been trying to encourage some kids that were going to play basketball or American football to get out on a tennis court.  I think when I watch Isner, he’s an extremely dangerous guy to play against.  He plays, for the most part, a traditional type of tennis that’s being played now.  He doesn’t serve and volley very much.  Seems unbelievable to me watching how big he serves.  This guy has one of the biggest serves in the history of tennis and he comes in occasionally.  He had a great week last week.  He’s been in the top 10.  No one wants to play this guy, I can assure you of that.

We have two choices:  We either get better athletes.  It’s not that some of these guys aren’t good athletes, but we need truly great athletes, try to nab some of the kids playing some other sports, offer that opportunity, guys is 6’2″, 6’3″, or we go with guys that are 7″ and serve like 150. 

All of a sudden, some guy could come along that could just make life absolutely miserable for almost any player and could do pretty much almost anything.  It’s getting closer.  You can look at the Del Potros, Janowicz, John Isner, Karlovic.  He was 6’10”.  People don’t want to play these guys.  What happens when the guy is 7’1″, 7’2″?  Imagine what his serve would do. 

I think right now it’s going to be very interesting to see what happens moving forward.  If either A, any rule changes are made, or, B, what we’re going to see from our country as well as other countries moving forward.  What type of efforts are going to be put into trying to get more kids to play tennis. 

It’s a great sport.  We’ve been lucky, Patrick and I, that we’ve made a great living doing this.  We both want to be part of turning this around and getting America to dominate.  We could get back on top.  Doesn’t look good right now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t in five years.

Q. John, I found it interesting the other day that Li Na, when she was walking on the court to play Serena, said that she was going to serve and volley.  That was what she was going to try to do. 

JOHN McENROE:  Did she laugh after she said it? 

Q. So I was fascinated to watch and see if she did it.  Then she got out there and didn’t exactly do what she said. 

JOHN McENROE:  She has ‑ I made an effort to move forward more.  The key point is to keep people off balance.  I’m not even suggesting that Isner has to serve and volley every serve.  What about like one out of two?  When you serve that big, it just seems amazing that you just don’t use that to even more of your advantage to make it more uncomfortable for people to play you, the way Pete Sampras was so good at, even though he was a measly 6’1″.  He got people totally out of a rhythm and totally uncomfortable and he did his thing.

John would be even more dangerous, in my opinion, if he did a little bit more of that.  He did a pretty good job of trying to move forward and do some of those things.  I would suggest he do more of them.  It’s easy, again, for me to sit up in the booth and tell him what to do.  He’s out there battling.  But it’s going to be interesting.  Isner is a guy who obviously no one wants to get near this guy.  Look what he did at Cincinnati.  He was there in the final and he played ‑‑ Nadal is playing unbelievable the last couple weeks and it went 6 and 6.  These top guys are praying he’ll lose before they play him. 

Q. I don’t know about you, but sad in this country we got Serena Williams dominating at the top and the Bryan brothers arguably the greatest doubles team in history, and we’re still talking about troubles we have in America.  I think the Bryan brothers would be rock stars in other countries.  Talk about what makes them special on the court and how underappreciated they are.

PATRICK McENROE:  Let me start, John, because I was lucky enough to have them as a doubles team in Davis Cup for a long time.  I’ll just say it pretty quickly.  Those guys are incredibly passionate about what they do.  They love tennis and love to get out there.  They’ve obviously honed their skills so they’ve become doubles experts. 

I think that was the right decision to make for the longevity of their career.  Bob could’ve been a pretty good singles player, but he backed off so they could save their bodes.  They practice for doubles every single day.  That’s all they do.  They do it religiously and consistently. 

Obviously they love tennis.  They love the game and love playing in big matches.  They have to play a lot of matches when they’re not big matches.  But they bring the same kind of emotion and intensity to those matches as they do to Davis Cup matches and Grand Slam finals.  Their passion for tennis is the biggest reason for their success. 

Q. John, obviously you love playing doubles.  I know the sport is just too grueling now for the singles players.  Talk about the joy that maybe some of these guys are missing and how much satisfaction you got. 

JOHN McENROE:  First of all, I’m one of the few guys that can say doubles helped my singles.  I’m happy I was able to play doubles at a high level for many years.   When I hear that these guys are the greatest doubles team all‑time, it sort of ‑‑ I think people should take a deep breathe on that one, in my opinion.  But that’s okay. 

They’ve done a great job and can only play who they’re playing against.  I don’t even know why someone can make a statement that easily when you look at guys the way Edberg played doubles.  I hopefully knew a thing or two.  Newcombe and Roche back in their day.

Most guys play tennis and try to maximize their singles career and put a lot of time and effort into that.  The Bryans, as Patrick rightly pointed out, chose to play just doubles basically.  A lot of the doubles players are doubles players, which was not the case before.   So while I applaud them, people should give that a little bit more thought in my opinion.  Peter Fleming, who I played with, was a top 10 singles player.  Won 7 Grand Slams in singles. 

The Bryan brothers are better than everybody?  That’s a pretty grand statement.  As far as what we should be celebrating, Serena, we need to do a better job of what she’s doing at the late stages of her career.  Any celebration that can be done with the Bryans to keep doubles alive is fine with me because it’s on life support.

I sometimes wonder if there should be doubles.  Forget the fact of celebration, should they start their own circuit if people like doubles that much.

Q. Wow.  So you feel like…

JOHN McENROE:  I don’t see what doubles, you know, at this stage, what is it bringing to our sport. 

Q. It’s amazing that most tennis fans in the country are strictly doubles players and they still can’t get behind it.  Just not enough TV hours to show it primetime. 

JOHN McENROE:  Unfortunately, again, I’m going to have to call you out a little bit on that.  They’ve shown doubles.  If the ratings were there for doubles, don’t you think they’d show doubles? 

Q. Yeah. 

JOHN McENROE:  Why is Serena Williams out there?  They want an American in the finals and better ratings. 

Q. And just see the top players playing is what you’re saying. 

JOHN McENROE:  Well, the top players would help, but I’m not sure they would be the answer either.  It would be helpful though certainly if the top players embraced it.  But at this stage if you go to a Wimbledon where I used to play doubles, it was best‑of‑five in the doubles.  You’re not going to see any singles players think they’re going to win or go deep in Wimbledon playing doubles.  And then French, you’re out there for a long time so don’t play doubles there.  Can go on and on. 

Q. John, I know you’re training for the New York marathon, too. 

JOHN McENROE:  I’m training to coach it, not run it.  (Laughter.)  Maybe next year. 

Q. You touched on Federer’s mental state.  Could you talk about Sharapova a little bit?  You just had Connors for a game and released him.  What do you see that she needs to do or address as far as getting her game going?

JOHN McENROE:  First of all, she was playing some of the best tennis of you her career, in my book, leading into the French.  I thought she played well and got to the finals.  She was very strong.  She was No. 2 going into Wimbledon.  The early stages of Wimbledon, as we all know, are times where the courts can be slick and dicey; she was one of the victims of that. 

I’m not sure what she and Jimmy were even working on or what he thought she needed to improve and why she felt she needed Jimmy.  So that’s a bit of a mystery that may be answered by her at some stage ‑ or Jimmy.

Bottom line, after one match, that seems rather quick to decide right before the Open that’s it when they had just started working out. 

Having said that, I don’t think there is a whole lot that she needs to do differently.  I mean, she’s playing as well as I think she’s capable of playing, other than the difficulties she’s had with her serve.  It’s been a liability at sometimes and it’s gone off.  That really hasn’t affected her ‑ amazingly ‑ in as big a way as I would have thought.  That shows you how strong she is mentally.  Clearly, if her serve was better and could hold easier that would be a big help.  That would be the spot I would focus on if I were her. 

Q. I just want to touch on Rafa again.  I mean, it seems to me he’s just in absolutely sensational form.  Just wondering if either of you thought he would be able to produce this kind of form on the hardcourts with the knee problems?  Do you think his heavy schedule will be a problem, or does he deserve to be the main favorite going in? 

PATRICK McENROE:  I don’t think any of us would have expected him to play three Masters events and go undefeated, and not to mention beat every top 10 player on hardcourts and do it as impressively as he has done it.  We all knew he could come back.  He’s Nadal.  And he could still get to the top.  But what he’s done on hardcourts this year has been amazing.  I think he’s perfectly primed to win the Open.  His movement has been great.

We asked him last week in Cincinnati, Do you think you’re playing better now than when you won the Open?  He wouldn’t go there because he played great back then, too, but I think he’s playing smarter hardcourt tennis, in that he’s trying to finish points more quickly.  When he played Djokovic in Canada, he did a much better job on the shorter points than the longer points.  So I think it’s a little bit of a role reversal there. 

All this being said, I think he’s a favorite.  Obviously Murray and Djokovic are still great hard court players, and over the last couple of years have been the two best on hard courts in the majors.  But the way Nadal has played this year and especially the last two weeks, in my mind, he’s the favorite. 

JOHN McENROE:  I would just say that we’re all extremely pleased for our sport that he’s come back seemingly so healthy.  Obviously, as Patrick said, if he’s healthy he’s an incredible player.  I put him as one of the all‑time greats.  There is an argument to make his “the” greatest with his results and head‑to‑heads with these other top guys.

So I must say, I was concerned after watching him at Wimbledon, but maybe it was a blessing that he had an extra couple weeks.  Because that was the first day, he didn’t play for about six weeks.  So this to me would be the perfect schedule for him.  Have four week, play two, and then one week off.  So he’s just where he wants to be there. 

Going to be really exciting now.  You got three guys, one major each for Rafa, Murray, and Djokovic, going for the No. 1 ranking.  This should be an outstanding and exciting Open.

Rafa sneaking into the 2 spot after winning Cincinnati now allows him that he’s only going to have to play one of ‑‑ well, he could play both of them, but he could conceivably only have to play one of them.  So if he’s slotted with Ferrer, that would be a favorable situation for him.  This is going to be an interesting draw when it’s made tomorrow.  

Q. There is some stat that he’s got a winning record against the top players.  I mean, that’s almost unprecedented, I guess. 

JOHN McENROE:  I’m not exactly sure.  I mean, I know what my record was.  I can tell you it’s amazing how well and ‑‑  it’s not just on clay.  Obviously a lot of them are on clay, but he’s won two Wimbledon, an Open, and Australia.  Guy has 12 majors.  He’s about to break Emerson; passed Borg.  It’s unbelievable.  We’re lucky to have him back.   Just hope he stays healthy for a couple more years. 

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