Patrick McEnroe predicts how his brother John McEnroe would perform if he played in the modern era

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Patrick McEnroe has suggested his older brother John McEnroe’s career could have looked different if he was playing in the modern era.

John McEnroe won seven Grand Slam singles titles in his career, all coming at either Wimbledon or the US Open.

The American was also world number one for a total of 170 weeks, and John McEnroe is regarded as one of the greatest ATP players of all time.

However, his younger brother Patrick believes that John could have had an even better career if he played in the modern era.

Patrick McEnroe thinks John McEnroe would have been even better if he played now

As well as being a multiple-time Grand Slam champion, John McEnroe also became renowned for his on-court outbursts, usually directed towards umpire calls.

When asked about how his older brother would have fared on the ATP Tour today, Patrick McEnroe suggested that he could have achieved even more as he would not have had many issues with the umpire due to the introduction of electronic line calling.

“The bottom line is he would still be a high level tennis player,” Patrick McEnroe said on the Spout Podcast.

“…In some ways maybe he would actually have been better, because I think a lot of the stuff that went on, you know the controversies that surrounded him about the line calls and him getting upset now with electronic line calling it might have calmed him down a bit, he may have actually been a better player.

“You know, part of his drive was that emotion, that intensity that he brought to the court, to the match. So at the end of the day, I still think he would be really good, he would probably still get to number one in the world.

“Because I think players in other eras, they learn how to adapt and change, so I think he’d do just fine in this era. Tennis could always do with some personalities, it’s a star driven sport, it’s driven by personalities and by rivalries, and we have been lucky enough to see some great rivalries that I’ve been able to broadcast for many years. [Roger] Federer, [Rafael] Nadal, [Novak] Djokovic and now we’ve got Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, two great young talents that are really elevating the game.”

Patrick McEnroe explains how he felt playing against brother John McEnroe

While John McEnroe is the more well-known of the two brothers, Patrick McEnroe also had a successful career of his own, including winning the French Open in doubles.

Patrick was also a top 30 singles player and won one ATP title, but his first singles final on tour actually came against his older brother.

This was at the ATP tournament in Chicago, where John came from a set down to beat Patrick 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

When asked if playing his brother was more challenging than other matches, Patrick admitted that John put more pressure on himself than he did.

“You know, I think it was more emotionally hard for my brother than for me,” said Patrick. “Because he was always obviously a better player for me and at that point he was at the end of his career, I was sort of the middle of my career, which was really the only time that I could give him a match.

“Because I played him a couple of times earlier when I was younger and he was sort of in his prime, and he just beat the you know what out of me. This one time I actually had a chance to win the match, but I must say it wasn’t like this huge desire of mine to beat my brother.

“My brother I looked up to and he was like a mentor to me, and he really helped me in my whole journey as a player, knowing that he was a much better player.

“But I think it would have hurt him a lot more than it would have made me happy. But at the end of the day it was a very close, competitive match, which he won in the third set and I have to say I was pretty happy with that.

“It wasn’t a huge desire of mine to say I beat my older brother, I beat him in doubles a few times and he didn’t take that too well either!”