Known equally for his temper tantrums on court as for his dazzling play, John McEnroe was the star personality of men's tennis in the first half of the 1980s.

The brash New Yorker, whose nickname of 'Supermac' often became 'Superbrat' when he launched one of his famous tirades at officials, won seven Grand Slam singles title including Wimbledon three times in four years.

Those successes at the All England Club came between 1981 and 1984 and he was runner-up there in 1980 and 1982.

His other four 'majors' all came at the US Open while he also captured 10 Grand Slam doubles titles, seven of which came with Peter Fleming.

John McEnroe, born on February 16th 1959, ended Bjorn Borg's five-year Wimbledon reign in 1981, having lost a thrilling five-setter to the Swede the previous year which contained the sport's most celebrated tie-break.

In 1982 he lost another memorable final to Jimmy Connors, but was utterly dominant in the next two years as he played some of the finest grass-court tennis ever seen.

His straight-sets loss to Kevin Curren in the 1985 quarter-finals was one of Wimbledon's greatest ever shocks and signalled the end of his peak. Indeed, from 1986 onwards he cut back drastically the amount of tournaments he played as he and first wife Tatum O'Neal started a family.

There was a last hurrah for John McEnroe in 1992 when he reached the Wimbledon semi-finals and won the doubles with Michael Stich.

Since then he has continued to play competitively on the seniors' tour and has become a highly respected tennis broadcaster.