John McEnroe has called for drastic changes to tennis rules which he believes would see a return of "trash-talking" and "yelling" to make the sport a more entertaining spectacle.

Animated American McEnroe developed a reputation for dishing out verbals on the court during his illustrious playing career.

And the seven-time grand-slam champion believes tennis would be more appealing to the masses if there were more fireworks during matches.

He said at a press conference ahead of the start of Wimbledon on Monday: "If you really want to get it more exciting: no linesmen. And have the players call their lines.

"That would make the game more exciting, I promise you. It would be awesome. You would have more of what we liked in the past. It was fun when guys were trash-talking each other and yelling at each other, me and (Jimmy) Connors or whatever.

"You'd start getting more of that. You’d also have the challenge, the replay system. It's not as if it's not there. And you'd have an umpire who could settle some type of dispute if necessary.

"The players need to be able to feel that they can express themselves. I'm sure on the soccer pitch, they're not saying, 'Hello, how are you?', or on the rugby field. We have it in American sports.

"They are out there yelling at each other. Is it really different in tennis? Should it be treated differently?," he said, adding: "Do the mics have to be there as high as they are? We hear this virtually every match, 'we’d like to apologise for Mr Murray's comments, he may have said something…'

"I got fined. They would go back and listen to my matches and two days later I'd be fined. Because no one heard it while it was being played, but they heard it on some mic behind the court. Is that the way it should be? I don’t think so."

McEnroe also wants to see the traditional knock-up to be scrapped ahead of matches.

"The warm-up is boring. I would do it more like boxing. I don't think they need to hit balls before they play. They are so finely tuned and I think it would be more interesting." he added.

"I think they should play through lets on serve. I know it would add an element of unpredictability which, by the way, I think would be good. It would speed up the match and be one less thing to worry about,

"I would put tie-breakers in the fifth set, no question about it. I've actually thought of the possibility of a tie-breaker at three-all in the fifth set."