{"id":45511,"date":"2025-08-04T21:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T21:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/45511\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T21:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T21:36:11","slug":"the-prediction-john-mcenroe-made-about-which-american-man-had-the-most-potential-in-2023-which-has-still-not-come-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/45511\/","title":{"rendered":"The prediction John McEnroe made about which American man had the \u2018most potential’ in 2023 which has still not come true"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

American tennis is thriving at the moment, on both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sides.<\/p>\n

And whilst the latter are enjoying that little bit more success, having captured a handful of Grand Slam titles across recent years, the men are certainly knocking on the door.<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz<\/a> is obviously the outstanding candidate, having reached the US Open final last year, with Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe<\/a> and Tommy Paul all close behind, waiting for their chance.<\/p>\n

And yet, back in 2023, it was another player who John McEnroe<\/a> predicted had the \u2018most potential\u2019 out of all the US men, and was the most likely to enjoy success in a major.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say that his claim is yet to come true. <\/p>\n

John McEnroe\u2019s failed prediction about American tennis<\/p>\n

Speaking to Eurosport<\/a> over two years ago now, he was asked to rate the current standard of tennis across the many American men present.<\/p>\n

And whilst he was naturally effusive in his praise for the likes of Fritz and Tiafoe, it was Sebastian Korda who he favoured above all.<\/p>\n

\"JohnPhoto by Sebastian Reuter\/2024 Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 66-year-old admitted: \u201cFrances Tiafoe has also improved a lot. Taylor Fritz has phenomenal ball-striking. He definitely belongs in the Top 10 and is a Grand Slam threat. To go all the way, he\u2019s going to have to go one step further<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he (Taylor Fritz) pushed the others to improve, and we\u2019re going to have several Americans in the Top 10. I also think American players pushed each other, and that emulation helped them believe they could compete at this level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to pick one to bet on, I would probably choose Sebastian Korda: he is the youngest of this top group and the one with the most potential at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the only lesser-known American that the seven-time Grand Slam champion has predicted for big things, with McEnroe praising Learner Tien<\/a> more recently.<\/p>\n

Why has Seb Korda not played since the French Open?<\/p>\n

2024 was a steady if unspectacular year for Korda, who only really came into his own around this time.<\/p>\n

After all, having suffered many first and second-round exits, he shocked many by soaring to the title in Washington before reaching the semi-finals of the Canadian Open too.<\/p>\n

He would then start this year in similarly strong form, reaching the final in Adelaide and the quarter-finals in Miami.<\/p>\n

Alas, his steady progression was cut short in Paris, as he announced after his third-round defeat at Roland Garros that he would miss the entire clay-court swing of the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately no Wimbledon for me this year,\u201d he claimed. \u201cStress fracture in my shin during the clay. Been a tough 12 months, but better days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SebastianPhoto by Daniel Kopatsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

This has kept him out of Washington and Montreal, with no return in sight for Korda.<\/p>\n

Since McEnroe\u2019s prediction, the 22-year-old has yet to get past the third round at any Grand Slam, whilst all his aforementioned compatriots have done.<\/p>\n

It may well come true one day, but at the moment, it\u2019s not looking good for the legendary American tennis star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American tennis is thriving at the moment, on both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s sides. And whilst the latter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,8286,31967,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-45511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-john-mcenroe","11":"tag-sebastian-korda","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}