Are you happy with the decision to allow the fans back into Grand Slam tennis events?
Well, I’m no medical expert but certainly in any sporting event, and especially in a sport that I’ve been part of, when you are out there on your own, you feed off fans and fans feed off the players.

I think in pretty much all the sports that I’ve seen, they’ve been forced to play – certainly in America – without fans and you see a smattering of fans but I’d say some are better than none, assuming obviously that people are taking precautions.

I think it’s awesome but there’s obviously concern because it’s not the same situation that was set up at the US Open or some of the other sporting events.  Hopefully it’ll be fine and assuming that people are being safe, it’ll be much better for everyone that there are fans, absolutely.

Do you think that the time of the year that the tournament is being played is going to alter the dynamic of the tournament a little bit?  Obviously, Rafa is probably not going to be as effective. 
Usually in Paris it cools off and it gets a little bit chilly at night and it depends on the scheduling.  I’m sure that Rafa won’t be suggesting he plays a lot of night matches and I don't know how that’s going to play out. Obviously the weather is very unpredictable but presumably in the autumn, the balls are not going to jump up as much as it normally does which will make life more difficult. 

Also, the law of averages I suppose - Rafa’s won it 12 times so you would think at some point he’ll cool off a little bit and not be able to produce as amazingly as he has so I think the door is open, particularly since this crazy pandemic has been going on.

It’s something the players haven’t experienced so it’s going to be unpredictable.  A lot of players are scrambling, trying to play events that they might not normally play, say in Hamburg, to get some matches.  Others are rolling the dice a little more and playing maybe one event in Rome and others may not be playing almost any events so it’s obviously as unpredictable as it can be with a guy who’s won it 12 times. 

Do you see Dominic Thiem as one of the main favourites for the tournament or is it still going to be Novak and Rafa?
I think he’s obviously the third guy, there’s no doubt about it, he’s stepped it up emotionally and physically.  It’s got to be draining, what happened and then winning, for him to finally break through and win one is something that is an accomplishment that puts him in rarefied air but at the same time, he’s going to have to dig deep because he’s going to have to go to a surface where he plays well.

I actually said a year or so ago that I thought he’d improved his game to the point where maybe he was actually better on hard courts than he was on clay, even though his results are obviously better on clay. So it will be interesting to see how he plays it at the French Open.  Obviously, the draw is going to have something to do with it, how much he is going to put out early because he’s one of the guys that’s not playing any matches, along with Zverev, but you absolutely put him right there at the top of the list, no question.

Was winning his first Grand Slam the first step to catching the Big Three?
It’s such a crazy time and what happened to Novak; and with Rafa not even playing; and Roger being hurt, that certainly opened the door but that match they played in the final, you could see how much it meant to them. You could feel the nerves and the tension and the emotions of what these two were going through so I think in a way it was refreshing to see.

You almost take for granted how great these three guys are, it is almost inhuman how consistent the top three guys have been so when you see guys that are stressing and cramping and going through the nerves, like almost all human beings do, it makes you appreciate what the top guys did but also makes you appreciate what Dominic Thiem was able to accomplish - so there’s obviously a let-down right after, he’s had two weeks, presumably he’ll start pumping himself up right about now. The way he’s playing and his confidence and his belief in himself, he is going to be tough to beat, no question, unless he’s just too fried from what just happened.

Rafa Nadal had a disappointing result in Rome. Is he as vulnerable as he has been going into a Roland Garros tournament?
I just think because of the situation, the world-wide pandemic, that makes him more vulnerable. I think Rafa is a player who likes to get some matches in under his belt and gets confidence from that so just because there’s been so little tennis, and then him choosing not to come to New York, obviously he has only played a couple of matches so that makes it more unpredictable. Presumably he would be less confident but he’s proven over and over in best of five sets at the French Open, that’s the toughest task of any player to beat him there so he’s still got that going for him.

Who do you see as the next star once Nadal, Djokovic and Federer eventually call it a day, who is going to be the next big personality who can make a mark on tennis?
I think there’s guys like Shapovalov who’s got the potential to do that, I think Tsitsipas is still a work in progress, Zverev is there, I think Rublev and Medvedev are guys who have the potential.

Sinner, the young Italian, I think he’s going to be a real player.  He is obviously a lot younger so he has got more of a way to go. Thiem is like the veteran of the group and he’s not maybe as big as a couple of these guys physically but he trains extremely hard so he’s set himself up. So you can presume the next three or four years he can make a number of deep runs. 

What made Roland Garros the most difficult tournament for you to win?  Obviously getting to a memorable final in ’84 but why couldn’t you make that step further that you could elsewhere?
When I grew up, I was actually better on clay and my best results were on clay. Then, as I became a professional, since the schedule was virtually year-round, the commitment it takes, it’s hard to walk and only play one tune-up event which is more or less what I was trying to do. 

I’m not going to bore everyone with the details but it was tougher to focus on that and I credit the French Open and Australian Open for trying to get themselves closer to what Wimbledon and the US Open were. So, in my mind you obviously wanted to win everything but it was difficult to put yourself in a position where you gave yourself the time and the amount of time you’d be away from home as an American. 

You’d have to go to Europe four to six weeks before the French Open, so these types of decisions made it trickier and obviously, if you are an aggressive player like I am and someone who liked to move forward and cover the net, it’s tougher to move and make those quick explosive moves on clay. 

So, it’s better set up for a counter-puncher. It’s interesting to see someone who is willing to move forward and then someone who is willing to wait and see what you do and that’s usually the more successful person at a place like Roland-Garros.

Physically, it is tougher to end points so that makes it trickier. You have to be in that frame of mind where you have to restart points that you thought you had already won so it is just the psychology that was more difficult for me as time went on, so it just made it very difficult to get all the way.

John McEnroe is a tennis expert for Eurosport. All courts and all matches from Roland-Garros from Paris will be live on Eurosport and Eurosport app starting Sunday 27 September.