“There’s a lot on the shoulders” John McEnroe lends support to Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu for their struggles
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Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, John McEnroe
Former World No. 1 John McEnroe has been busy recently with promotions over his upcoming documentary based on his career as a Pro where he won 7 Grand Slam singles titles to go along with his 9 Doubles Grand Slam titles and 1 Mixed Doubles major while he also captured multiple Year-End Championships in both singles and doubles throughout his glorious career.
McEnroe apart from his long career was also famous for his on-court antics and was labelled the ‘Bad boy of tennis’, a moniker that has been since then associated with Nick Kyrgios in recent times. McEnroe however did not bother what name was he called as he was able to use the energy in putting match-winning performances on the court and rising in stature as a tennis great.
John McEnroe discusses mental health conversations from his playing time to now
While John had several outbursts on the court, the American recently discussed how little were the mental health issues being discussed then as his outbursts were just seen as his frustration and anger but nothing beyond that. He hailed Naomi Osaka for her honesty about admitting to mental health issues at the 2021 French Open and also discusses how the constant media spotlight is harmful to young players such as Emma Raducanu.
“When I grew up, boys weren’t supposed to cry. That didn’t happen. You had to grin and bear it and tough through it. So this is a whole new world, which is better in a lot of ways, but it also complicates things too. I also hid behind anger when I felt like I had something really funny to say. I should have said it, but I didn’t because I thought I’d lose my edge. That’s the way I was taught: I need to dominate this guy. Other times you felt like you were about to break into tears, but you’d get angry rather than be seen as vulnerable by crying.
“That was a sign of weakness. We’ve come a long way in that regard. The issue with Naomi Osaka is that I think she did it for the right reasons, but the problem for her is that now people are going to look at her even more carefully, so that makes it tougher. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out for her. I hope it plays out well. And for Emma Raducanu, there’s a lot on her shoulders. That’s an issue that first came up at Wimbledon when she was unable to complete that match.
“And then she had this historic “never-happened-before” win at the US Open. Now expectations are much higher and that makes it that much harder. There are obviously a lot of great positives: there are people throwing money at her and she’s famous for a great reason – winning the US Open – but the key is hopefully she has the right people around her. Hopefully, they can allow her to flourish,” said McEnroe speaking with GQ during his documentary promotion.
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Sarthak Shitole
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