You’re on a tennis court, in ready position at the net. Your partner, John McEnroe, serves, rushes to the net, and puts away one of his impossible half-volleys that wins you the match. The crowd goes wild.
A spectator shouts, “You cannot be serious!”
The still-irascible, silver-haired McEnroe retorts with his in-your-face brashness, “Oh, I’ve never heard that before.” Everyone goes home happy.
Is it all a dream? No, it was very much a reality on Saturday in Amagansett. Well, at least for those willing to pay between $10,000 and $20,000 to play with McEnroe or one of the six other past tennis greats: Mats Wilander, Mary Joe Fernandez, the Bryan twins, Gigi Fernandez, and Patrick McEnroe — who among them have won a staggering 61 Grand Slam titles.
It was the eighth annual Johnny Mac Tennis Project’s Pro Am in the Hamptons, a fund-raiser to help provide financial aid for thousands of under-resourced New York City children and introduce them to tennis. The program also provides support for the most promising and deserving young American talents who receive funding for international tennis competitions and coaching directly from Patrick and John McEnroe.
A longtime member of the Sportime Amagansett Tennis and Swim Club, the locale for Saturday’s event, recently questioned the value of the McEnroe charity. “Why put a tennis racket into the hands of an underprivileged child? Why not feed and educate them instead?” the man had asked.
Patrick McEnroe supplied the answer. “There’s no doubt that we all need to do more to help kids of all backgrounds. But tennis is a great vehicle for life because it’s an activity that teaches you a lot of life lessons — like failure and coming back, and trying again. And, of course, it’s great exercise. It also teaches kids discipline, structure, and dealing with the positives and negatives of life,” said the former professional tennis player, former captain of the United States Davis Cup team, and now the president of the board and co-director of his brother’s eponymous organization.
Judging by the record turnout on Saturday, McEnroe was on to something. About 350 tennis fans with deep pockets showed up either to play with or simply watch (for $150) the tennis legends.
For $2,500, amateur tennis players got to team up with a teaching pro, mostly instructors from various Sportime clubs on Long Island and Randalls Island in New York City, and all very good players, for about two hours of match play. (The winners of my group, the amateur Adam Sklar and Sportime pro Jonahiby Tauil Jr., played in the tournament’s semifinal against John McEnroe and a Sportime member. Team McEnroe lost; he did not look happy.)
Sklar and Tauil lost in the final to a talented and determined 12-year-old Evan Chu and his teaching pro Ion Efrim. After his victory, Chu, who trains at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy on Randalls Island, said, “It felt really good to play with everyone and enjoy myself playing in a doubles tournament.” Did he get to play against McEnroe? “No. But that’s okay,” he said.
Tens of thousands of dollars were also raised during a live auction, offering items such as U.S. Open finals tickets, a McEnroe brothers’ recorded commentary of an amateur’s match, and a two-hour lesson with Gigi Fernandez. There was also a silent auction and an afterparty at a member’s Amagansett house for $250 a head.
“It’s a dream of ours,” said John McEnroe, “to give as many kids as possible the opportunity to play this great sport . . . and to change their lives. We’ve done so for years and we’ll continue to do so as long as I’m alive.”
Showcased during the tennis event were a few of the 40 talented youngsters in his program who receive financial aid. (“We reach over 1,000 kids over the course of the year in our community programs,” said Ryann Cutillo, the organization’s executive director.) One of them was Izyan (Zizou) Ahmad, a rising seventh grader from New Jersey and a McEnroe scholarship recipient who was recently ranked number one in the national U.S.T.A. rankings in singles and doubles.
By offering the public an understanding of how their charity works, and showing the breadth and scope of altruistic giving, the McEnroe brothers clearly hope to inspire us all to be more generous.
Ultimately though, the brothers’ greatest hope might well be that New York, a city with which they are inextricably linked, will once again produce a world-class tennis player.