The Hindu : Sport / World View : Modern players lack passion: McEnroe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 16, 2004

Sport

Sport - World View

Modern players lack passion: McEnroe

By P. Subramanyam

LONDON: Three-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe has criticised British No. 1, Tim Henman as being too boring. He said Henman was the "classic example" of modern players, who were "robots" lacking personality.

"Henman should get with the fans. They are rooting for him! Respond to them, harness their energy, love them back!" McEnroe told the Radio Times. "If you could do that, Henman could win on grass. Call it acting, but it would energise the game", he asserted.

McEnroe went on to add: "A lot of the players are Darth Vader types to me. OK. So they're great athletes. But, where's the passion, the feeling", he asked. "It seems to me that even if you, the audience, really dislike the guy on the court, it's better to feel that than to feel nothing. We need more daring attempts to entertain. The players don't seem happy to be out there."

He continued: "These kids have to do all these tournaments, show up on the circuit, because that's business, but then they can't get into the big ones that we really care about. They walk around with their heads down. If they're 15 in the world, they're miserable because all they can think is the 14 people better than them. They walk around in a bubble that's all professional sport and no life. We need to work out a way of promoting them or the game will go down".

McEnroe concluded by saying, "They need to be accessible to their fans. Who wants to watch robots all day? " he questioned.

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