John McEnroe worries about getting old

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 26

John McEnroe worries about getting old

NZPA London John McEnroe is a little worried that now he is getting old he might be wearing out his body by playing too much tennis. McEnroe, aged 24 and a bit, hopes to stay at the top for at least another five years. But in the past two years he has been plagued by various injuries and had only just recovered from a shoulder complaint before playing at Wimbledon. He knows he ought to cut down his commitments — but McEnroe’s problem, believe it or not, is that he simply loves playing tennis. He is the only top player who appears in both singles and doubles and has never failed to answer the call when the United States wants him for Davis Cup duty. Now McEnroe says: “I keep on saying that I must cut down on my schedule, but I never seem to get down to it. There are so many commitments to keep. “I consider myself very lucky to be such a good tennis player and would like to stay that way. I know that if I keep playing as much as I have for the past

six years I am going to run into more injuries.” McEnroe would love to be like Jack Nicklaus in golf and build his year round the big tournaments. But then another sponsor asks him to play and McEnroe has not yet learned to say “no.” Talking of ages, everyone in tennis knows that Billie Jean King is called the “Old Lady.”

But what most people do not realise is that it has nothing to do with the fact that she is aged 39. Billie Jean has been the “Old Lady” since she was 22 years old, way back in 1965 when she was playing Rosie Casals, her old doubles buddy. As Billie Jean explains: “Rosie gave me the nickname then because I was

puffing and blowing so much, and I have been the ‘Old Lady’ ever since. “Mind you, there is still plenty of life in the old dog.” Billie Jean proved that point handsomely by reaching the Wimbledon semifinals again, just 20 years after first reaching that stage in 1963, and for the fourteenth time in all.