Tennis: Mac the mouth can be serious

Chris Bowers hears a genius of the court in his new role rating the rising Britons

"MY GOD, they're given me an umpire!" exclaimed John McEnroe on arriving in Hannover to be told that his co-commentator on Eurosport would be David Mercer, the umpire who officiated in the 1984 Wimbledon final in which McEnroe destroyed Jimmy Connors. "That's ironic, but I guess what goes around comes around. When you're a player you're very into what you're doing, whereas one thing I enjoy about the TV is that you're part of a team."

Mercer, who had no problem in the 1984 final (it lasted just 80 minutes) but who had his run-ins with McEnroe over the course of some 20 matches, also felt he was part of a team. "It's been great fun," he said. "John's very articulate and opinionated, which makes for great television."

McEnroe has proved a hit in Hannover, not just in the commentary box but also in the early-evening studio discussions with Guy Forget, Michael Stich and the presenter Heinz Gunthardt. While Gunthardt and Stich have been talking in German to appease viewers in the country which supplies Eurosport's biggest advertising revenue, I have had the honour of acting as McEnroe's interpreter and he has proved highly adept at jumping in with "I think Michael's right when he says..." and other pronouncements that have made some viewers think he understands German.

The powerful left-hander has also been passing judgement on another powerful left-hander, Greg Rusedski, who he watches with mixed feelings. He is a good friend of Brian Teacher, the American who coached Rusedski for 17 months up to the US Open final but who was then discharged. "I think Brian really settled him down and got him focused on the things he needed to do, really helped him as a player to go from 48 to the top 10.

"For me it was a bit of a dilemma watching Greg, because personally I was really disappointed that he dropped Brian. Obviously it's his decision, but I felt Brian deserved to see if he could take Greg to the next level. If Greg sincerely believes Tony Pickard is going to help him become a better player, then that's his right, but I question whether that's true at this point."

So how good does the former world No 1 think Rusedski can be? "It's going to be tough for him to improve at this level," he said. "To me he'll be extremely successful if he's five in the world this time next year - people are going to be shooting for him. They have more to gain by beating Greg Rusedski now.You can start with Henman - he doesn't want to be No 2 in England."

Ah Henman, a man McEnroe has always admired, but to whom he offers some advice from the heart. "Of the two players Henman's been under more pressure as a born-and-bred Englishman. Both of them had a lot of pressure before and after Wimbledon, and I think Rusedski handled it better; he was a little more outwardly cocky, which can sometimes be successful.

"I think Henman bottled up his emotions too much. To me he's an emotional guy, he suffers a bit from what I call the Courier syndrome: he has a high amount of energy which doesn't seem to be utilised the best way. I'm not insinuating that he should start yelling at umpires but just getting a little bit happier when he hits a good shot. That can often relieve the pressure. Rusedski is a pretty emotional guy, and Henman is too - it's time to forget about the stuff about British guys not showing emotion. What's wrong with showing some emotion? To me it's just expressing happiness."