John Patrick McEnroe, although American, was actually born in Germany, on a U.S. airbase, to American parents, John and Katy, on February 16, 1959. One of two sons, John has a younger brother by seven years, Patrick.

When John was less than a year old his parents moved back to America to Douglaston, Queens, and took up tennis at Port Washington Tennis Academy on Long Island. John was educated at Trinity High School New Jersey and later attended Stanford University from where he dropped out to peruse his love of tennis after winning the NCAA singles and team title in 1978.

At the age of just eighteen John made it through the qualifying tournament to the main draw at Wimbledon where he lost to Jimmy Connors in the semis finals. In 1980 McEnroe came up against Bjorn Borg in the Wimbledon final and eventually lost 8-6 to the Swede who was protecting his attempt at his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. The match was considered the best Wimbledon final ever.

In 1982 McEnroe lost the Wimbledon final to Jimmy Connors. But in 1983 reached his fourth consecutive Wimbledon final and beat New Zealander Chris Lewis in straight sets. In the same year he lost the Australian Open to Mats Wilander and he also lost the French Open to Ivan Lendl but went on to beat Lendl in 1984 in his fourth U.S. Open. McEnroe's 1984 season did not end without controversy.

While playing and winning the tournament in Stockholm, McEnroe had an on-court outburst that became notorious in sports highlight reels. After questioning a call made by the chair umpire, McEnroe demanded, "Answer my question, jerk!" McEnroe then slammed his racquet into a juice cart beside the court. Though other players before him - most notably Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase - ranted, raved, and berated umpires, McEnroe took outrageous behaviour and sheer playing genius, to a whole new level

In 1986 McEnroe was feeling the strain of being at the top and took a six month break during which time he married the actress Tatum ONeal, daughter of actor Ryan ONeal. Together, during the period of their marriage they had three children, Kevin, Sean, and Emily.

John returned to tennis but never regained his status and in 1987 McEnroe played a six-hour, twenty-minute game which he lost to Boris Becker.

In 1990 McEnroe reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open, losing to the eventual champion Pete Sampras. But in 1993 he won in his match against Boris Becker in the third round of the Australian Open and in that same year he lost to Andre Agassi at Wimbledon. McEnroe retired from the professional tour at the end of 1992. He ended his singles career ranked 20th in the world. In the same year McEnroe divorced Tatum ONeal and married musician Patti Smyth in 1997.

McEnroe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.

After his competitive tennis playing years were over John began appearing on television as a chat show host for CNBC called "McEnroe"and in the occasional movie such as Wimbledon, with Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, and Sam Neill, with McEnroe playing himself. In 2003, in Anger Management, he once again played himself along with Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson, John Turturro, and Woody Harrelson, and in 2002 he was once again himself in Mr. Deeds, again with Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, and Winona Ryder.

McEnroe currently owns an art gallery in Manhattan, New York.

YUDDY