John McEnroe: “I’ve never seen anyone try harder than Jimmy Connors, but Rafael Nadal has done it”

in that comparison slightly above Nadal even though he thinks Djokovic has equalized the gap between the two after their victory at Wimbledon 2022.

McEnroe defines the Nadal exception

McEnroe also uses the Spaniard as an example when talking about the behavior of current tennis players: “Players today seem like incredibly nice people. Rafael Nadal assures that he has never broken a racket in his life. But generally, I think people are, just like tennis, More like me and Connors than Borgwho never showed any expression“.

The American believes that tennis puts a lot of pressure on people and that is why the frustrating reactions of some: “It’s a very frustrating game where it’s very hard not to be emotional. I would be something like ‘I’m going to train and be like Borg for two hours’, and that would last about five minutes. It’s not in my DNA“.

“Kind of like you feed the villainous part, maybe without you knowing it, and then it turns into this monster out of control“, he added about it.