Why did John McEnroe never win the French Open? Looking into the American legend's unfortunate history at Roland-Garros

John McEnroe of the United States remains one of the most gifted tennis players. The 65-year-old had an aesthetically appealing game and was quite successful as a player, too. McEnroe won seven Grand Slam titles and spent 170 weeks as World No. 1.

However, a major loophole in the American southpaw’s career was his inability to win the French Open. He came close on a couple of occasions, but fell short of attaining glory on the Paris clay.

John McEnroe had an ordinary record at French Open by his lofty standards

McEnroe was the runner-up at the 1984 French Open and also reached the semifinal the subsequent year. However, besides that brief spell, which also coincided with the peak of his otherwise succesful career, he was mostly unimpressive with his performances at the Major.

McEnroe ended up with a 25-10 career win-loss record at Roland Garros, which put his winning rate there at 71%. It is significantly less than his overall winning ratio of 81% at Grand Slams.

The American’s failure to win the 1984 final against Ivan Lendl must have hurt. McEnroe, in supreme form, lost in only three matches that calendar year. He was leading Lendl 2-0 by winning the first two sets at Roland-Garros, but the latter bounced back by winning the next three sets to win the match 3-6 2-6 6-4 7-5 7-5.

He was then thrashed by a young Mats Wilander in the 1985 tournament's semifinal in straight sets. Both Lendl and Wilander, incidentally, are now among the best-ever players on clay.

It has been the American's misfortune to have some of the best players of all time on clay as his contemporaries. During the initial stages of McEnroe's career, Bjorn Borg was reigning supreme at Roland-Garros and went on to win six titles there.

John McEnroe's playing style was not particularly suited for clay

John McEnroe was a natural serve-and-volley player and was always more comfortable playing on quicker surfaces. His three Wimbledon titles and four US Open titles bear testament to that. He played in an era when serve-and-volley was still in vogue and the sport hadn't seen the proliferation of baseliners that has been the case in the 21st century.

Still, it is true that even in the 1980s and 1990s serve-and-volleyers mostly failed to win the French Open, with only Yannick Noah achieving the feat in 1983. Stefan Edberg, another serve-and-volleyer, came close in 1989 but just like McEnroe in 1984, he lost in the final to Michael Chang.

Borg, Lendl and Wilander won multiple titles at Roland-Garros and all of them were baseliners. Thus, it may be said that John McEnroe was simply not meant for such French Open glory.