Patrick McEnroe

Juniors

McEnroe started playing tennis as a young boy and was taught at the Port Washington Tennis Academy, where his brother John also played. As a junior player, McEnroe partnered with Luke Jensen to win the French Junior doubles and the USTA Boys' 18 National and Clay Court titles in 1984. He also made his first impact on the professional tour that year, teaming up with brother John to win the doubles title at Richmond, Virginia. He won the Men's Doubles Gold medal at the 1987 Pan American Games with Jensen, and helped Stanford University win the NCAA team championship in 1986 and 1988. While at Stanford, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. McEnroe graduated from Stanford in 1988 with a degree in political science, and then joined the professional tennis tour.

Junior Grand Slam results:

Australian Open: -
French Open: 2R (1984)
Wimbledon: SF (1983)
US Open: SF (1983)

Professional career

In 1989, McEnroe won the French Open Men's Doubles title and the Masters doubles title partnering with Jim Grabb.

His first career singles final came in 1991 at Chicago, where he faced his brother John, who won the match 3–6, 6–2, 6–4. (This was the second time in tour history where two brothers faced each other in a tournament final, after Emilio Sanchez and Javier Sanchez met in the Madrid final in 1987.)

McEnroe's best Grand Slam singles performance came at the 1991 Australian Open, where he reached the semi-finals before being knocked-out by eventual-champion Boris Becker. (Commenting on his fellow semi-finalists, he told the press: "It's just like you all expected – Edberg, Lendl, McEnroe and Becker".) He was also runner-up in the men's doubles at the Australian Open that year, partnering with his former Stanford team-mate David Wheaton.

McEnroe won the men's singles at the Sydney Outdoor Championships in 1995, to claim his only career singles title. He also had some notable Grand Slam singles results that year – beating Boris Becker in the first round of the Australian Open (before eventually losing in the fourth round), and then reaching the quarter-finals of the US Open where he lost to Becker in an epic four-hour and seven-minute four-set marathon.

McEnroe acted catalyst of fellow tennis champion (and older brother John's own rival) Jimmy Connors's run during the 1991 U.S. Open. In the first Round of the 1991 U.S. Open, McEnroe led Connors two sets and 3–0 in the third set but Connors came back to win in 5 sets, walking off the court at 1:35 in the morning, after 4 hours and 18 minutes of play.

McEnroe retired from the professional tour in 1998.

Davis Cup

In the Davis Cup, McEnroe represented his country as a doubles player in 1993, 1994 and 1996, compiling a 3–1 record. In 2000, after older-brother John resigned following an unhappy 14-month spell as Captain, he was named the 38th Captain of the United States Davis Cup team.

With McEnroe as captain, the Davis Cup team won the Cup for the U.S. in December 2007. He resigned the position of team captain on September 6, 2010. His time as captain is the longest of any US Davis Cup captain.

General Manager USTA Player Development

In 2008, McEnroe became General Manager of USTA Player Development. A series of mandates aimed at promoting junior tennis, including a requirement that all players age 10 and under (U10) compete on miniature courts using new lightweight "green dot" tennis balls, have been controversial. The smaller format is designed to make tennis more accessible to children but critics argue that it will inhibit development. Coach Robert Lansdorp said in September 2013 that the format "is wrong for the very talented players" that become champions and noted that Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles and the Williams sisters were already competing on regular courts by age 7.

In 2012 tennis coach Wayne Bryan, father of the Bryan Brothers, wrote a letter expressing concern about the effects USTA mandates were having on players and coaches around the country. McEnroe responded, calling Bryan's criticisms "scattershot" and "filled with holes, hearsay and half truths". At the December 2012 "Riv It Up" USPTA Education Event held at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, professional coaches united to support Bryan in a "packed" meeting with USTA director Craig Jones that drew attendees from as far away as Arizona. FOX News commentator Sean Hannity, the father of two junior players, posted his own analysis online "urging the immediate reversal of the USTA's new rules for juniors competition". Former world #1 John McEnroe, owner of Sportime Tennis Center on Randalls Island, New York, agrees that the tennis federation his younger brother Patrick advocates is unlikely to produce a champion.

On September 3, 2014, Patrick McEnroe was relieved of his duties as Head of Player Development for the USTA. Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated reports McEnroe was "forced out of his job" after a six-year tenure The announcement was made during the US Open Tennis Championship in Flushing Meadow, New York, where for the second consecutive year, and only the second time in its 134-year history, no American men advanced past the third round. It is the latest indicator that the United States has lost its place in the upper echelon of professional tennis. The last American man to win a Grand Slam title was Andy Roddick in 2003.

On April 5th, 2015, Martin Blackman was announced as the new Head of Player Development for the USTA.

Personal life

On December 19, 1998, he married singer and actress Melissa Errico. They have three daughters, Victoria Penny (born 2006) and twins Juliette Beatrice and Diana Katherine (born 2008).

Distinctions and honors

Singles runner-up (3)

Doubles runner-up (21)