After his defeat to Kevin Curren in the quarterfinal of Wimbledon 1985, John McEnroe encouraged a change to the surface at the grasscourt major as he spoke of how tennis was changing.

The American, who has seven Grand Slam titles to his name, went into Wimbledon 1985 as the two-time defending champion, having won the major in both 1983 and 1984. He had also reached the final for six consecutive years from 1979 onwards.

However, this turned out to be the year that McEnroe's impressive streak was ended as he suffered a shock defeat to 1982 US Open champion Curren in the quarterfinal.

Following this, McEnroe complained about the evolution of tennis at the 1985 US Open and encouraged a surface change on grass to move with the times.

"It’s not tennis anymore. You get a guy like [Kevin] Curren or [Boris] Becker, a big server, and it becomes a one-shot deal. It’s not going to happen in my career, but Wimbledon is going to have to change [surfaces]. Otherwise, you’ll have 16 Beckers in the round of 16. Who wants to see everybody ace everybody else?

"They shouldn’t keep things the same just because of the fact they have been there in the past. Players are different, stronger, today. In basketball, if players started to grow to 7-6 and could dunk standing on their feet, wouldn’t you expect them to do something?" he said.

Curren advanced to the final of Wimbledon in 1985, where he faced Boris Becker. The match went to four sets, but the German player ultimately defeated Curren to take his maiden grasscourt title 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-4.

Meanwhile, McEnroe continued to compete until 1994 in singles and 2006 in doubles but never won another singles title at a Grand Slam. However, he did achieve the doubles title at the US Open in 1989 and at Wimbledon in 1992.