Could a John McEnroe make it to the top today?

[timnz]

No one would of heard of mcenroe if he had to play on the current slow surfaces. Similarly sampras would only have been moderately successful. He might have won a couple of us opens but that is about it. Makes you wonder what great players are invisible to us today because of the lack of balance of surfaces. No fast courts at all, the fastest one can hope for is simply medium paced, compared to the courts of the 80s and 90s

[BeHappy]

^^^ Timnz, McEnroe is a RG finalist

Originally Posted by NadalAgassi

Gilles Simon has never beaten Nadal at Wimbledon. Maybe you are thinking if Gilles Mueller but he isnt a serve and volley player really. He has a big serve and hits flat and hard from the ground. Anyway that was in 2005 when Nadal sucked on grass still.

What is Nadal`s overall record vs Tsonga and Karlovic. Tsonga has spent most of the last 5 years in the top 10 so should be beating everyone on occasion, and he has wins over all the top players. Also is he supposed to be some master volleyer, LOL, he plays off the ground way more than the net.

As for Federer and Henman, Henman lost most of his matches with Federer in 2004 in straight sets. He only won their first match of the year in a minor event, but was drubbed in the Indian Wells final and U.S Open semis. Rafter owned Federer at the same time baseliners Hewitt, Nalbandian, and Kafelnikov all did as well, amongst many others.

A guy like McEnroe is easily good enough to do well today, but he would just be a victim of todays surfaces. Henman and Rafter werent even at their best when the surfaces were slower, and both were able to excel only on the fast surfaces of 2001 and earlier, apart from Henman having one last good year in 2004. A serve and volleyer could do well today but he would need a huge power serve and big ground game to help him get to the net like Sampras or Becker.

Why would he need a power game to get to the net? Murray plays just like McEnroe (from the baseline) and does fine. I don't see why McEnroe wouldn't be able to junk ball, get the short ball that way and approach the way he used to? Why couldn't he approach off Andy Murray or Nadal's weak second serves?

[NadalAgassi]

I am not a Murray fan but he was a winning record against Federer playing almost entirely from the baseline on todays slow courts. McEnroe would not be able to play almost entirely from the baseline as Murray does and win most of his matches with Federer, not even an old Federer in Masters or smaller events (btw I am not saying McEnroe playing his own game on the old faster courts couldnt have more than held his own even vs prime Federer, but that is another topic altogether).

[BeHappy]

Originally Posted by NadalAgassi

I am not a Murray fan but he was a winning record against Federer playing almost entirely from the baseline on todays slow courts. McEnroe would not be able to play almost entirely from the baseline as Murray does and win most of his matches with Federer, not even an old Federer in Masters or smaller events (btw I am not saying McEnroe playing his own game on the old faster courts couldnt have more than held his own even vs prime Federer, but that is another topic altogether).

Federer would have trouble with that lefty can opener serve out wide. It's all very well slicing 75% of your returns against baseliners, against McEnroe he would have one shot at the winner before McEnroe put him away.

[813wilson]

I am soooo confused. All of the emphatic answers: yes, he would. no, he wouldnt. I don't know which TT poster to believe.

What I do know is: give him his same game with today's equipment, in his prime(which was kind of short btw) I think he would do pretty well. His serves, groundstrokes and volleys would have more pop than in his day....

I mean, I know it was doubles and only the SAP Open but he did win it at the age of 47....

Oh well.