Actually? Borg, becker, edberg, etc....hit with A LOT of topspin.

Yeah, but today’s tennis is still great

👴🏼

Golden age of tennis

@@lloydkline1518 Oui, Oui, Ai vu jouer, Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Connors, C' était bien l' âge d' or. Pas seulement du tennis 🎾. Mais aussi, De la Vie. RESPECT, Merci

I agree this was the best era of tennis for both men and women specifically because this time was the real start of the public interest. IMO I like some of today's men but not the women and I'm not sexist. Women just slam the ball and shriek. Boring. Men a little more versatile

You can tell by looking at them they're both on steroids, it's so obvious. The big pecs and biceps 💪

This mythic match has generated my passion for this game...

Berdych played with a wooden racquet and still destroyed Kvitova playing with a modern raquet. Top players would still be great.

Give them all Wilson t2000s, that would be funny 🤣

@@Vipa567 um... Berdych is a man and Kvitova is a woman... when did they play each other?

id love to see a wood raquet tourney

Connors is a 70's version of Agassi. Mcenroe is a 70's version of Sampras..

I was beginning to think it didn't exist!

@@uncletony6210 This was late enough that I figured it existed, but I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever see any of it.

He hadn’t perfected that sideways serve yet.

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

@@lancer3412 I think Lendl - Mac 1980 USO doesn't exist.

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

LMFAO Mccenroe never won another major after 84 because the bigger, stronger and faster athletes came on the scene. Connors and mccenroe were built like skinny toothpick girls.

@@bradhuskers its way more complicated than that. Dint insult the best all around player in history with ur smirky attitude..im talking singles and doubles. Take ur lmfao and stick it. U r ignorant.

@@bradhuskers Stupidity really runs deep online...

Sports have always been that way...players get bigger, equipment changes, new coaching techniques, and PEDs, contribute to the game's evolution.

Sayres Rudy no kidding! I have one. It weighs like a lb!

simon guevara museum piece! i tried hitting with one years ago (& stringing one) ~ impossible task. sweetspot like 2x2 inches.

Sayres Rudy I’m also an exp stringer. I have never tried to string any of those T models!

simon guevara you’re really fun. it apparently took two hours to do one. and a phd. 😂

I don't know how he hit that thing under extreme pressure. It's like a sandpaper ping-pong paddle. Ever try to hit a T-2000, very difficult. Also, McEnroe still drilled some 1st serves in the '78 match and Connors just nailed a return many players wouldn't even get to. Still say the best return in history.

His motion in 1979 and 1980 looked the most natural to me. That Jack Kramer Wilson almost felt like an extension of his arm..

@@fundhund62 I can see that. The changes from '79 to '80 are really noticeable, too, moving his feet to his trademark parallel-to- the-baseline stance. To me, especially in '84, when McEnroe's serve was flowing, he had service games that remind me of Federer's service games where it would take him 60 to 70 seconds to hold serve.

@@egdfbznz Sure. He had much more power with a graphite racket, of course. I really like his 84 motion, too. It's just that his talent was even more noticeable with a wooden racket. Everybody can look smooth using modern frames, but to make it look easy using wood one had to be supremely talented.

@@fundhund62 Absolutely agree that his talent was made obvious when using the Jack Kramer and the Dunlop Maxply. Hitting with a 65 sq. in. head is definitely more challenging (esp. with the amount of flex wood racquets had) than with the 85 sq. in. he had with the Dunlop 200g. I guess if Patrick hadn't introduced the 200g to John in 1983, John's 1984 campaign would've been different while still using the Maxply.

@@egdfbznz The change in racket technology was a big equalizer. John, while definitely benefiting from the added touch and power of a midsize frame, didn't actually need it. He was already awesome using wood. When everybody started using graphite, the gap between John and his peers narrowed. People who couldn't ever outplay him were suddenly able to overpower him. Curren at Wimbledon is a good example. He destroyed John in 85, but in 80 with wooden rackets he did not win a set. If the racket revolution had never happened, we might be looking back on McEnroe's 15+ slams today. But whatever 😎

You couldn't name 5 top players now. Talk about living in the past 😂

@@nuftis I know, I'm old. Things were better back then. 75 cent a gallon gas, 10 dollar concert tickets to the biggest bands around, no inflation or all the social justice unrest we have now. No transgender insanity and the tennis was better lol. Imo anyway.

@@kevinpowers9024 We live in clown world now, where a world class athlete wasn't allowed to enter the country to compete in a world class tournament and then leave again, but millions of people from 3rd world countries are encouraged to infiltrate our borders and we have no idea who they are, where they came from, or what diseases they might have. Sure, that makes sense...in clown world.

It's something fucking Other-Worldly and everyone knows it. And honestly his wood-frame days are kinda the best because more body language is involved. I'm 57 so I remember. Ciao.

@@KingCast65I loved how John would lift his whole body off the floor, contorting his body and stroke a ball to the line. Jimmy was intense, like every shot was life or death not just a game. Best tennis era by far, serve and volley not monotonous base line like today. The men's game has ended up like the women's game.

@@alexandersimpson3638 Yeah but at least the drop shot has created some tension in the past couple years. Bublick is fun.

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

johnny_mac1959 you can watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

Zero creativity thus boring is today's game.

Modern rackets and strings have greatly changed the game.

@@bb1111116 I watched tennis from 1970s & only when Connors & Nastase appeared did it get really interesting. Connors in is my fav player in that era & it hotted up in the 1980s. Sampras bored me to tears as we now had the composite rackets & we could barely get beyond a 4 hit rally! The players hadn't learnt yet how to use this in eye body & mind. Federer Nadal Djokovic Murray et al 20-40 rallies & fine net work & do for 4-6hrs. When they've retired tennis will go over a cliff & it's about 3yrs away. Thankgod we can see these great players battling on KZfaq & the Slams let us see it for free. The Borg era is slim pickin' to view sadly.

@@seltaeb3302 Well said

I grew up watching these two and Bjorn Borg on TV in the late 70's/early 80's. I developed a love for the sport after my dad taught me how to play when I was about 7 years old. I enjoy these old matches, but today's version is more about power, prestige, and money than love of the game. I miss these old matches.

or his 91 run to the semis

McEnroe vs Lendl 1980 QF... to be followed by McEnroe vs Connors SF... to be followed by McEnroe vs Borg Final - . All 40th anniversary editions , full replays and to be uploaded this september PA-A-LEEZE !!! In defending and winning his 2nd USO , McEnroe put up an extraordinary effort outlasting and defeating his three greatest ever rivals. I don't know how many times that has been done.

Any match with panatta !

@@patrickkelly9110 The Panatta match from 1978 was not shown in the US. The tv coverage was a fraction of what it is now. Outside of Labor Day, there was no weekday coverage outside of a nightly highlight show fro CBS. IIRC, 30 minutes. Hell, this match was not shown in it's entirety. It was the first match and it started at 11. CBS came on at 12. It was that way into the 80s. You always missed some of te first match. I don't need to see the same matches that have been replayed numerous times or you could find online. This is the first I've seen of this match since I saw it on tv in 1978. I'd rather they give me all they have of this match than Connors other 3 matches with Mcenroe. I've seen them. Granted, though, the 80 and 84 matches are classics. This was hardly that although Connors did come from 5-1 to win the 3rd set. However, if they somehow did have the Panatta match, sign me up for that. Same with the Borg/Tanner matches from 79-81. None of them were televised here, but if they were shown elsewhere, or CBS taped them anyway(maybe for the highlight show), I'd love to see them.

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

johnny_mac1959 you can watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

Wish another Pete Sampras graces his presence on the circuit again.

First we need a couple of coaches who allow for personal style, again. Not your run-of-the-mill big serve - semi-western forehand - two-handed backand package.. We got those guys a dime a dozen. Time for something more interesting!

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

@Jom James until a new genius comes along

@Jom James I love your passion for certainty plus if you read my reply I never mentioned serve and volley . In the 80’s and early 90’s there were talks about that the slice and the one handed backhand would disappear in 2012 most were certain that Federer would never win another grand slam, I agree with the odds that power tennis tends to back up your rather bold statement but a genius is a genius, no?

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

@@sebbytennis4298 Cool. I will look just for that but I support the Facebook empire as lightly as possible. Can't fucking stand them. Am in fact, suing them: www.scribd.com/document/392343705/KingCast-v-Facebook-Censorship-9th-Circuit-Court-of-Appeals-Brief

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

johnny_mac1959 you can watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

Panatta match was definitely not televised in the US. CBS had no weekday coverage, Labor Day aside, back then. And this was several years before cable. CBS had a half hour highlights program every night. There were some highlights shown there of the Panatta match. Unless someone in Europe televised it? Maybe Italian tv for Panatta. All speculation, I have zero knowledge that they did.

@@lancer3412, yeah, maybe Italian TV for the Panatta match, I don't know... but it doesn't hurt to ask, right? ;-)

Amen.

@the supernatural yeah ,imagine if Federer would have played in that era ever better with a wooden racquet

@the supernatural Fed yes he used to play with a pstaff 85,Nadal...not so sure maybe i mean probably with an old prince oversise but not like Roger and not Wimbledon

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

Greatest decade might be 2004 to 2014.

​@@Aman-nk5uqWeakest

He gradually changed it, you could see it being even more more traditional in the first 1977 encounter with Connors at Wimbledon compared to the first match here in the video... somewhere in between '79 and '80 it's when he completed the transition to his iconic serve motion

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

Apparently, he was experiencing back strain and began that 'drinking bird' /bobbing motion as a way to stretch his back mucles prior to serving. It had an additional bonus effect: opponents found it hard to read his serve so he kept doing it.

Marc Thompson Funky indeed but if you watch carefully his swing shape varies with his intentions when he stays back he keeps a reasonable length of swing. In 1984 Mac no longer felt it was perhaps possible to win trading with longer swings from the back of the court and the low string tension plus his unique continental forehand grip only proved to be the perfect fit for attacking tennis with as you say funky short back swings and follow throughs. Mad really as he has been the only one in history. Occasionally do we see Roger use that same strategy with the SABR and other times using a chopper grip on the forehand to outsmart his opponent at the net. God wasn’t busy when he created those two

johnny_mac1959 you watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

Most of it was to draw publicity.

Oh,at Wembley 83'. Mcenroe was approaching his peak. It was a fast indoor court, and Mac was devastating, something like 18 aces in 3 sets. Jimmy tried his usual tricks, but to no avail. I always remember how great Mcenroe was with his low volleys. Great days.

@@jasonbrooks6562 sew] Rdd

patrick kelly and his dad’s pants! 14:05

johnny_mac1959 you can watch my Macenroe page on Instagram where I post great points and interesting comments and commentaries

Trouble is they were recorded on home videos & not now the best to view mainly once they hit said ball it Paul Daniels disappears!

I like that!

Something called "grass," I think.

The serve and volley player is pretty non existent now

@Nikhil Joshi both are playing baselije tennis here. It was the 90s which was really boring especially on grass.

@@Aman-nk5uq exactly, too many points ended on serve in 90s. Who the hell wants to watch Ivanisevic and Sampras acing each other? 70s, early 80s tennis was mix of style, but Mcenroe best weapon (unlike Sampras) was volley not serve, and Connors dominated 70s (along with Borg of course) with rather average serve (but great return - Agassi, Djoko style)

Absolutely - And they didn't constantly talk, talk, talk. They let the tennis be the show, not them.

As far as picking a beef, he seemed to instigate something with Bill Scanlon at the '83 US Open, hitting hard, flat backhands at him from close range at least three times, landing once. Also, in his long history with Connors, he seemed to start one at Wembley Arena in '81.

Two examples of toxic masculinity. Arrogant, self-important unbehaved machos who thought their success in sport made them elevated people. Real human dirt.

@@egdfbznz That's right about the Scanlon match, I hadn't remembered that one, and I'm sure there's video out there. Connors IMO was far more unlikeable than McEnroe. As a teenager, in the peak of my passion for actually playing tennis, I ALWAYS rooted against Connors... was thrilled for Orantes in the 1975 USO and most of all for Ashe at Wimbledon in 1975.

@@cush6827 Yea, they were great to watch!

@@chrissoulios2915 No. I prefer watching tennis. If I want to watch stupid egos I look elsewhere.