"What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well"
About this Quote
McEnroe doesn’t pick footwork, reflexes, or a killer serve; he picks the thing you can’t easily measure on a radar gun. “Desire” here isn’t a motivational poster word. It’s a blunt acknowledgement of tennis’s most humiliating truth: even the best spend huge stretches of a match feeling slightly off, slightly wrong, slightly exposed. Champions aren’t defined by their highlight reels, but by their tolerance for that discomfort.
The key phrase is “when you are not playing that well.” That’s the insider admission. Fans talk about dominance; players talk about survival. McEnroe, famous for genius and volatility, is quietly revising his own mythology. The subtext is that talent is intermittent and emotions are unreliable, especially in an individual sport where there’s no teammate to hide behind and no clock to rescue you. “Staying in there” is less about heroic aggression than about refusing the seductive exit ramps: frustration, self-pity, the urge to blow up an umpire or implode in a tiebreak.
Context matters: McEnroe came up in an era of fierce rivalries and less homogenized training, where matches could turn on nerve, guile, and the willingness to grind through ugliness. His line also pushes back against the modern obsession with “form” and aesthetics. He’s saying the champion’s edge is not playing perfect; it’s winning imperfect. Desire is the skill that turns bad days into trophies.
The key phrase is “when you are not playing that well.” That’s the insider admission. Fans talk about dominance; players talk about survival. McEnroe, famous for genius and volatility, is quietly revising his own mythology. The subtext is that talent is intermittent and emotions are unreliable, especially in an individual sport where there’s no teammate to hide behind and no clock to rescue you. “Staying in there” is less about heroic aggression than about refusing the seductive exit ramps: frustration, self-pity, the urge to blow up an umpire or implode in a tiebreak.
Context matters: McEnroe came up in an era of fierce rivalries and less homogenized training, where matches could turn on nerve, guile, and the willingness to grind through ugliness. His line also pushes back against the modern obsession with “form” and aesthetics. He’s saying the champion’s edge is not playing perfect; it’s winning imperfect. Desire is the skill that turns bad days into trophies.
Quote Details
| Topic | Perseverance |
|---|
More Quotes by John
Add to List
