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Unless a referee argues him out of it, John McEnroe is selling his house on—where else?—Squabble Lane in Southampton. The ask for the property is $14.5 million. And yes, it includes a tennis court.
Other than a busy broadcasting schedule not allowing much down time, one can only speculate why the Hall of Famer and his wife, the singer Patty Smyth, are giving up their Southampton digs. Perhaps Mr. McEnroe is heading to Hollywood: It was announced at the Cannes Film Festival this past week that the director Janus Metz Pederson (“Armadillo”) has set up the feature film “Borg vs. McEnroe.” According to deadline.com, the picture “re-creates the intense professional enmity between Swedish tennis icon Bjorn Borg and American enfant terrible John McEnroe,” and that producers have approached Shia LaBeouf “for the role of the foul-mouthed, perm-haired but brilliant McEnroe.” The piece also notes that the 1980 match between the two court rivals at Wimbledon “is considered one of the greatest tennis matches in the history of the sport.”
Perhaps a factor is AFOD, which stands for Annual French Open Depression. (The latest edition of that tournament begins next Sunday, May 22.) As great a player as Mr. McEnroe was—his career record was 875-198, and he is fourth all time with 77 titles won—that major title eluded him. Between 1979 and 1984, he won the U.S. Open four times and Wimbledon three times. Technically, Mr. McEnroe does have a French Open title, because when he made his major-tournament debut as an 18-year-old amateur in 1977, he won the mixed-doubles with Mary Carillo. In the singles, he advanced to the semifinals, where he lost to Jimmy Connors.
This year is the 32nd anniversary of the closest Mr. McEnroe got to a French Open championship. He marched through the competition, and by the time he reached the finals, he had accumulated a 42-match winning streak dating back to the beginning of the season. His opponent in the finals was Ivan Lendl, and Mr. McEnroe took the first two sets. Officials were readying to engrave his name on the French Open trophy when Lendl began an improbable comeback, and ended up defeating Mr. McEnroe in five sets. Though in his autobiography Mr. McEnroe called this defeat the most bitter one of his career, displaying great resiliency, the following month he beat Connors to win Wimbledon and in the U.S. Open that summer he downed Connors in a five-set semifinal then Lendl in straight sets to take that championship.
The McEnroe-Smyth manse in Southampton is described as a “grand traditional” on 2.17 acres with deeded beach rights. The dwelling is 7,500 square feet featuring 8 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms as well as a living room with a vaulted ceiling, balconies, a library, office, den, and sunroom. Outside, in addition to the Har-tru tennis court, there is a Gunite pool surrounded by, we’re told, “lush, rolling green lawns, color-infused specimen trees, shrubs, and gardens.” Sure sounds like a nice setting to practice your serve and volley.
Aside from its obvious attributes, the property has the distinction of once being part of the Murray-McDonnell compound. The story of these two families can be found in the 1973 book by Stephen Birmingham titled “Real Lace: America’s Irish Rich” and four years later by “Golden Clan: The Murrays, the McDonnells & the Irish American Aristocracy,” by John Corry. The clan chronicled were the children and grandchildren of the inventor Thomas Murray, a colleague of Thomas Edison. These two generations helped form the first Southampton summer colony in the late 1800s. Their celebrity increased when one McDonnell daughter married Henry Ford II and a Murray married Alfred Vanderbilt, and the activities of the members of the intertwined families were covered by the press in New York and in the Hamptons.
At one time, the collection of Murray and McDonnell estates in Southampton totaled 300 acres. Still to be found occasionally in the society pages are part-time resident Catherine Murray di Montezemolo and Peggy McDonnell, the wife of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
If the tennis legend and his rock-and-roll wife were to leave the area, there would still be a McEnroe presence in Southampton, thanks to John’s brother, Patrick, also a broadcaster, and his wife, the singer Melissa Errico.
on May 12, 2016