"It felt like open season on me, on her" - When John McEnroe and his then-wife Tatum O'Neal felt overwhelmed by constant media attention

John McEnroe's rise to the top of the men's game and his on-court persona garnered him plenty of media attention. While he was able to deal with most of it, there was a time when it became too much for him to handle. In his book 'You Can Not Be Serious,' the American details how the constant coverage of him and his then-wife Tatum O'Neal by the press made things difficult for them.

Once McEnroe and O'Neal officially became a couple, the tabloids and the paparazzi never left them alone. He stated that he felt like they were being hunted by the press.

"The tabloids had been following us around for six months, and that was also driving me crazy. I had had notoriety in the tennis world; I had been in People; but I had never had the distinction of making the National Enquirer until they’d photographed Tatum and me in December. Now it felt like open season on me, on her, and especially on the two of us together," John McEnroe wrote.

McEnroe didn't find any peace during tournaments either. Along with regular tennis fans, he began to spot paparazzi in the crowd as well. It even forced him to change his schedule in the lead-up to Wimbledon in 1985.

"Suddenly, wherever I went, it felt like a spectacle. Even my tennis events were drawing crowds of paparazzi types, people I’d never seen around the sport before. As a result, for the first time in my career, I chose to alter my preparation for Wimbledon, and not play Queen’s, where I had been in the final for seven years in a row," McEnroe added.

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John McEnroe blames media for 1985 Wimbledon loss

John McEnroe at the 2019 Wimbledon.

John McEnroe was the two-time defending champion heading into Wimbledon in 1985. While he tried to keep himself focused and not get distracted by the media circus, he found it hard to do so.

Though the American didn't travel to London with his then-wife Tatum O'Neal, it didn't stop the press from constantly reporting on their lives.

"Not if I had anything to do with it! I didn’t take Tatum to Wimbledon: It would’ve been too much for her, for us, and for me. When I got there, I thought, “I’ve come here to play. I’m not here to mess around. I can stay in my room; I don’t have to go out. I can just focus on the tennis,” McEnroe stated.

"It didn’t help. The tabloids, American and British, kept on churning out the crud—whether it was lies about Tatum, or her mother’s substance problems, or other cockamamie stories," he added.

McEnroe felt like a defeated player even before he stepped on the court due to the incessant coverage of his life. He made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1985, where he lost to a player he had defeated quite handily before.

"I felt I wasn’t being beaten by any opponent that year; I was being beaten before I got on the court. In the quarters I played Kevin Curren, who was a very difficult opponent on grass. I’d defeated him at Wimbledon a couple of years earlier, when his serve had looked daunting, but he’d done a lot of improving since then," John McEnroe said on Kevin Curre.

Up against fellow American Kevin Curren, McEnroe couldn't execute his game plan as he lost in straight sets. He did credit his opponent for getting better and added that the new racquet technology also made things difficult.

"He also had a new graphite Kneissl racket, which was giving his serve even more pop—as if it needed any! With the new rackets, it was becoming more and more apparent that when a guy was already a big hitter, things were going to become problematic. Curren overwhelmed me with his serve. I just couldn’t get any rhythm going on the return. The score wasn’t even close—6–2, 6–2, 6–4. I felt old out there. Old at twenty-six," John McEnroe stated.