Tennis: McEnroe bids farewell to an unequal battle

SO John McEnroe departed the scene, with a perspiration-stained shirt, a warning for abuse (but of course), some glorious reminders of the finesse the sport will miss and the knowledge that young players such as Goran Ivanisevic hit the ball too hard for him to contemplate adding to his major successes.

After 15 turbulent years, McEnroe has decided that enough is enough. Though stopping short of officially announcing his retirement here yesterday, the New Yorker was speaking past tense as a tour player, future tense as an exhibition player, coaching consultant and possible Davis Cup captain.

Determined to give a respectable account of himself, the 33- year-old McEnroe performed well enough on his first, and last, visit to the dollars 6m ( pounds 3.7m) Compaq Grand Slam Cup to come within sight of the semi-finals. A glimpse was all that the 21-year-old Ivanisevic was prepared to give him before adding impressive examples of touch play and confidence to his power to win, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, in an hour and 42 minutes.

We are now into the serious money. In tomorrow's semi-final, Ivanisevic plays Michael Chang, who has already made dollars 1.9m on his three visits to the event without actually lifting the trophy (a runner-up prize and two semi- finals). Yesterday, Chang defeated Petr Korda, of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-4.

McEnroe was going well in the duel of left-handers until the seventh game of the second set. Ivanisevic, 0-30 down, was awarded an ace which McEnroe believed was out. The Croatian saved the game, to lead 4-3, and McEnroe informed the French umpire, Bruno Rebeuh, that he made him sick, or words to that effect. The warning did little to concentrate McEnroe's mind, and he was broken in the 10th game to lose the set.

It says much for McEnroe's skill that when a group of spectators delayed his serving at the start of the second game of the final set by standing and making a fuss over who should sit where behind Ivanisevic's court, he neatly lobbed the ball into their midst. When play resumed, Ivanisevic rarely gave him the time to stroke the ball with such accuracy.

Even when McEnroe hit forceful serves, Ivanisevic would contrive to deliver cracking returns to the American's toes as he moved towards the net in the hope of catching a first volley. And the Croatian's serves continued to fly off the slick carpet court. He added 18 aces to his total, and requires eight more to bring his tournament total to 1,000 for the year.

'He probably hits his second serve as hard as 50 per cent of the people hit the first serve,' McEnroe said. 'Even when you consider the break that I had in the first set: he aced me, and they called a let that I didn't hear,' then he aced me, and they called foot-fault - so he basically aced me twice before the second serve, and then I hit a good return winner. I had a couple of chances the whole match. It is very difficult to get into any rhythm at all against him on his serve.'

The crux came in the fourth game of the final set. After hitting a superb stop-volley off an Ivanisevic drive to win the opening point, McEnroe saved two break points, only to find himself stretching for a volley, which he netted. At that moment, he leaned over, catching his breath and fearing the worst.

McEnroe did manage to save two more break points in the sixth game, and at 0-40 in the eighth he delivered two defiant shots, a volley and a smash, before being sent scurrying to the back of the court in pursuit of a lob from Ivanisevic. McEnroe's legs got him there - just - but, with his back to the court, he could only sky the ball over the baseline at the other end.

Ivanisevic jumped the net and embraced McEnroe in a manner reminiscent of the Croatian's gesture when defeated by Andre Agassi in the Wimbledon final. 'He was like a kind of idol for me, because he had the same way of playing and the same kind of temperament on the court. This match is going to be always in my memories, because maybe he is leaving tennis and I beat him. That is what I was dreaming of when I was young.'

The Croatian has actually beaten McEnroe in four of their six matches. The prize money - Ivanisevic is guaranteed dollars 450,000 as a semi-finalist; McEnroe received dollars 300,000 ('for charity') - was made to seem irrelevant.

McEnroe did not make a big deal of the occasion, merely raising an arm in a brief salute to the crowd before leaving the court. 'I don't think you will see me playing tournaments,' he said afterwards. 'I think you will see me playing some exhibitions here and there, hopefully against the best guys, because that would be a lot more interesting.

'I will be around. I am not going to fall off the face of the earth, but I don't see really where I can go from here, so it is best to go on my way. For whatever reason, Andre played great in the semis at Wimbledon. But I just didn't feel my body was reacting the way it had. I still feel I'm playing really well, but it just got to be too long since I won the big one. I couldn't convince myself that it was going to actually happen any more.'

If he goes, he will be missed, for the bad times, and for the good times.

GRAND SLAM CUP (Munich) Quarter-finals: G Ivanisevic (Croa) bt J McEnroe (US) 3-6 6-4 6-2; M Chang (US) bt P Korda (Cz) 6-3 6-4. Today: M Stich (Ger) v R Krajicek (Neth); P Sampras (US) v H Leconte (Fr).

THE Lawn Tennis Association president, Ian King, yesterday criticised the British tennis public for being impatient. 'We have the best tournament in the world so nothing but the very best is acceptable to them - but that is unrealistic,' King speaking at yesterday's LTA annual meeting at London's Queen's Club, said.