For Tennis Greats, the U.S. Open Is the Reunion That Can?t Be Missed

To me, we’re a fraternity, whether you liked him as a player or not, and as you get older, and you see a guy like that around, that makes it all better, a lot easier to talk to someone 20 or 30 years later.”Never one to embrace the status quo as a player or a commentator, McEnroe wondered why there weren’t more former champions frequenting the slams.“I mean, where’s Sampras, where’s Connors — Borg, even?” he said, referring to Pete Sampras, Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg.All have made occasional appearances in retirement, as has Andre Agassi, who recently began working to help Grigor Dmitrov revive his sagging fortunes. It was another example of King using a Grand Slam platform to speak out on social issues.If feelings are occasionally bruised by the commenting greats of yore, overall their presence is seen as a positive for today’s players, said James Blake, who retired in 2013 after reaching No. 4 in 2006 and works for Tennis Channel.“Some things change — I didn’t have to worry about social media when I was coming up and neither did Goran or Becker and a lot of the other guys that are still around,” he said.