Tennis Special Edition: Patrick McEnroe against his brother
Patrick McEnroe, or “P-Mac”, was destined to a life of competition. He was born in the McEnroe family, and his elder brother is tennis-great John McEnroe. To add to this, both brothers picked the same field to compete in: tennis. The flaw in this equation
is that the McEnroe brothers did not, unlike the Bryan brothers, team up with one another to become the best doubles partners in the world. Although they did play a number of doubles matches together, their partnership never really clicked - in fact, they
did the opposite; they were forced to compete with one another on at least two occasions during their respective careers.
The younger McEnroe, though a good player in his own right, was completely overshadowed by his elder brother’s above par skills and tennis talent. While Patrick’s highest position on the ATP Career rankings never went higher than World Number 25, John blew
apart the tennis world, taking professionals, critics and fans by storm, becoming World Number 1 in the process. He achieved 7 Grand Slam titles, 9 Grand Slam doubles titles and 1 Grand Slam mixed doubles title. Patrick never made it past the semi-final of
any Grand Slam tournament, during the duration of his ten-year long career.
This is not to say that there was any great rivalry between the two brothers, although this might have more to do with the fact that John was just too good for Patrick to ever actually stand a chance as his competition. Had Patrick been at John’s professional
level, it might have been a very different story; much like a more masculine, less civilized version of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. As a result, Patrick must have spent most of his life entirely eclipsed by his older brother, feeling the force
of having a legendary icon in his family.
However, with P-Mac’s recent retirement from his captaincy of the Davis Cup team, one is reminded; John McEnroe did not outshine his brother in every field of the game. In 1999, John McEnroe took on the role of captain of the US Davis Cup team. He was largely
unsuccessful in this role, mostly as a consequence of his own irrational temper and inability to make the players respect him or commit to his team. After 14 months of an unhappy captaincy, John McEnroe resigned and younger brother Patrick McEnroe took over
from him in 2000. The younger McEnroe had a much more triumphant run at the Davis Cup; he possessed the qualities which would enable him to become a great team leader, such as the ability to gain commitment for the team, dealing with massive egos and moulding
younger players within a team to rely on values such as loyalty, healthy competition and camaraderie. His approach paid off in 2007, where he led the US team to their 32nd finals victory at the Davis Cup finals.
Patrick McEnroe retired from his captaincy of the Davis Cup team on 6th September, 2010. It was an emotional retirement for McEnroe, who admitted, "I did tear up a few times there," he admitted. "I was thinking about all the experiences and situations
we'd been through, and savouring that feeling of what it's like to walk out there in a jacket that said USA on the back." He will be forever immortalized with his brother, and other captains, for this: his ability to dream, and the power to pull his players
into those dreams to success.
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