‘Got Inversely Nothing….’- John McEnroe Rues the Lack of Support From USTA in Nurturing Young Talent at His Club

John McEnroe is undoubtedly one of the best tennis players to have come from America. The 63-year-old has seven Grand Slam singles titles to his name. After retirement, he serves as a tennis expert and commentator. However, the former player has also taken up the responsibility of developing future tennis stars in the country.

The former world number 1 has his own tennis academy that nurtures young tennis players and prepares them for the bigger stage. However, tennis is an expensive game. A lot of talented players can not afford to pay for coaching. This is why scholarships are very important. Although McEnroe does his best to provide scholarships, it is something he can not do entirely on his own.

McEnroe rues lack of support from the USTA

McEnroe, in the podcast, stated that his facility is one of the best places to spot and nurture talent. However, he needs more support for the same.

“I have to go out and drum up more support because it’s very costly to hire coaches. If you have to have coaches go to events and the training, I mean you put them in the group sessions. That is costly, but they need some private lessons to hone their game,” he said.

Further, he expressed his disappointment over the lack of support from the USTA

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“They try to sort of monopolize everything. There were a lot of other people who said, look, you have to allow a facility like ours. We have a lot of pros here. I think we can do a great job cultivating talent in New York better than anywhere else. But they try to sort of get everyone and not allow the clubs like us to get a sort of grass. I think they are realizing that there are errors in the ways and they sort of publicly say yeah, we’re interested in the possibility of doing. But we have got inversely nothing from them at all,” he added.

John McEnroe on the failing state of tennis in America

Speaking of the current scenario, the 63-year-old said that tennis is becoming more like a cult in modern days.

He also drew attention to the long drought of great tennis players from the country. Notably, the last time an American man to win a Grand Slam was Andy Roddick, way back in 2003.

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However, the legend lauded Venus and Serena Williams for dominating the game for so long. But the point that the tennis veteran has made is quite valid. With this trend, the legend fears, that the popularity of tennis in the country may go down rapidly.

Do you agree with McEnroe?