"unfortunately certain rules and regulations are abused" - John McEnroe on bathroom breaks

John McEnroe recently did an interview for GQ where he discussed his career and some rules abused by players nowadays.

McEnroe is known for the way he handled things on the court in his career and he's since spoken many times about that. The overwhleming feeling for John is that he regrets some of those things and he admitted it to GQ saying that he did some things that threw people off.

"You know, you could argue that I did things that threw people off, my behaviour. This [bathroom break] is another form of that, in a way. And I think it's just as bad if not worse."

As noted above, McEnroe pointed out a very common tactic in today's tennis and that is to use a bathroom break to kill the momentum of the opposing player:

"What happens there is, you try to find a way to throw them off basically, and unfortunately in tennis, there’s certain rules and regulations that are allowed, and they’re abused. One of them is the bathroom break, which is basically a try to kill the momentum."

He continued:

"When I was playing, this is before Venus’ time and before Serena’s, we weren’t even allowed bathroom breaks, which would, you know, tense you up a little bit. You know, if you absolutely couldn’t wait anymore, I suppose there were certain exceptions, but there was no rule for going in bathroom break, bringing trainers, on the court, things that are abused."