Holding Court with Patrick McEnroe<\/a>” show on SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio, McEnroe cited statistics that \u201cDivision 1 tennis is now the most international major sport in college athletics, roughly 64% international on the men’s side, 61% on the women’s side.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cSo yeah, I think it\u2019s time, everyone, time for the NCAA, time for conferences, time for lawmakers, if necessary, there has to be a cap on the number of international players in American college tennis,\u201d said McEnroe, an ESPN tennis analyst and former U.S. Davis Cup captain. \u201cA cap, a real rule that says American universities have a responsibility to also develop American players, because if we don\u2019t do it, who\u2019s going to do it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAnd if American college tennis doesn\u2019t serve, at least in part, American tennis, then don\u2019t be shocked that more of the athletic directors decide we don\u2019t need this. It\u2019s not a revenue maker for universities. Arkansas might be the headline today, but this is much bigger than Arkansas. This is about the future of college tennis, and likely the future of college sports. This is about American opportunity. This is about whether we still believe college tennis is a ladder for our kids, maybe not just in tennis, but in life, or whether we’re okay watching that ladder get pulled up one rung at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arkansas, which competes in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference, this week announced it was dropping men\u2019s and women\u2019s tennis effective after this season due to financial constraints and the need to reallocate resources to remain competitive in the SEC. The move will save a reported $2.5 million and comes in response to the evolving nature of college athletics, including Name, Image and Likeness and the House settlement.<\/p>\n
“The landscape of college athletics continues to evolve, requiring us to make challenging choices as we balance competitive opportunities, resources and the long-term sustainability of our department,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said in a statement Friday. \u201cUltimately, we concluded that we are unable to provide the level of support necessary for our tennis programs to consistently compete in the SEC and nationally at the standard our student-athletes, coaches, alumni and supporters deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though there is no correlation between the university\u2019s decision and the composition of its tennis rosters, seven of the nine rostered men\u2019s players at Arkansas are international, originating from Spain, France, Slovenia, Slovakia, Israel, Australia and the Czech Republic. Seven of the 11 women on the Arkansas women\u2019s roster are international; they hail from Spain, Russia, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Ireland.<\/p>\n
McEnroe said he was motivated to call for a cap on international players after watching the SEC and ACC championships on tennis, where only three of a total 24 players on court were American-born.<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the last American man who attended college and went on to win a Grand Slam singles title was his older brother John, himself a big advocate of college tennis. <\/p>\n
PALO ALTO, CA – APRIL 14: John McEnroe of Stanford University hits a forehand during an NCAA singles tennis match against Cal played at Stanford University on April 14, 1978 in Palo Alto, California. McEnroe was a college freshman at the time. (Photo by David Madison\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
After attending Stanford University and winning the 1978 NCAA singles title, John McEnroe went on to win seven Grand Slam singles titles, with his final major victory coming at the 1984 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
Patrick McEnroe stressed that his position on a cap is \u201cnot anti-international.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI played with international players,\u201d he said. “I\u2019ve played against them. I\u2019ve coached them. I\u2019ve watched them, particularly in the last 20 years, make college tennis stronger. The level is much better. They bring quality, they bring culture, they bring competitiveness, toughness.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the most part, they\u2019re great team players. But here\u2019s the truth that nobody really wants to talk about. American college tennis cannot become a global finishing school while American juniors are standing outside the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: “This has become a survival issue because when athletic departments look at tennis and they ask, as they obviously did in Arkansas\u2026why are we funding this? We better have a better answer than, \u2018Well, we\u2019re a great opportunity for everyone from everywhere except here.\u2019 That answer\u2026is not going to save programs. <\/p>\n
“So today I\u2019m asking the question, what exactly is American college tennis for? And if you\u2019re a fan of other sports, you may end up putting that sport into that same question, because tennis is at the top of the list the overall amount of players around in mid 60s[%], and all of D-1 tennis in the mid 60s are international players. That\u2019s the highest of any sport, but it\u2019s coming up in other sports this sports as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it there to create American players? Is it there to create opportunity for American kids and their families? Is it part of the American tennis pathway? What exactly is the pathway? Because here are the numbers, everyone. Two decades ago, incoming D-1 tennis freshmen were roughly 70% American. Now it\u2019s closer to 40%.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Patrick McEnroe attends Charity Day 2025 Hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald Relief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-606686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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