Tennis News: John McEnroe and Andy Murray

John McEnroe knows a few things about winning Wimbledon. He won the grass-court major three times and made the finals two other times. He is one of the few people who can advise a player on what they need to do to win multiple titles at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. He also knows how to spot the kind of player who can win.

Speaking with Metro.co.uk ahead of next week's major, McEnroe spoke at length about who he thinks will win this year on the WTA side, but also who his dark horse candidates are. The American feels no different than most tennis fans in believing the players with the best chance to take the title are Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka. Both are big servers and that tends to work well on grass courts.

Sabalenka has not yet won Wimbledon, but Rybakina took home the trophy in 2022. WTA No. 1 Iga Swiatek's game does not translate very well to grass - at least, not in her career so far - so while she might be a favorite at most other majors, she isn't necessarily one in London.

John McEnroe names his dark horse candidates at Wimbledon and Andy Murray appears to reveal his final tournament

McEnroe told Metro, "Coco Gauff is a great player. She’s got the major (US Open title in 2023) and knows how to play on the grass. She’s more comfortable on it than Iga Swiatek is. That doesn’t mean Iga isn’t going to figure something out, but she’s more vulnerable on grass than any other surface...It’ll be interesting to see what Naomi Osaka can do on the grass. The door is open, for sure."

Unfortunately for one tennis great, the door appears to be closing quickly. Andy Murray has had his share of injury issues for most of the last decade, but at 37 years old he has less time to be able to recover in hopes of making another great run. Ahead of Wimbledon, Murray had surgery on a spinal cyst that could keep him out of the next major. He is seemingly waiting until the last minute whether to withdraw or not.

There is more of a chance that he plays doubles with his brother Jamie than singles. Playing doubles might be ruled out before the tournament as well.

More importantly, while Murray said earlier in 2024 that he couldn't see himself playing again much after the summer, he seems to have made the Olympics his certain final event. The Scot has won the Olympics twice in singles, though expecting to win again this summer might be foolish. He simply wants to represent his country once more.

Murray told the press this week, "Obviously the last week’s been pretty tough. There’s obviously a lot going on with me planning on finishing at the Olympics...I had a pretty decent-sized cyst on my spinal cord, which had been seen on a scan post-French Open, but it was pretty small and it grew significantly in size over the next two to three weeks...And also was made aware that, if I decided to try to play Wimbledon, there’s some risk associated with that and it’s whether or not I’m willing to take on that risk."

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