McEnroe Will Probably Skip Wimbledon, Father Says

John McEnroe, on a self-imposed break from tennis for the last four months, probably will skip Wimbledon, an event he has won three times, his father said Tuesday.

“It’s unlikely (he will play) . . . for the same reason he won’t play in the French (Open) and for the same reason he hasn’t played for the last four months,” John McEnroe Sr. said. “There are a lot of things going on in his life.

When he left the circuit last January, the younger McEnroe said he needed to “rejuvenate” himself.

“Wimbledon is a major tournament, with a tremendous amount of pressure,” his father said. “For anyone who has been off (from competition) the way John has, it would not make sense that his first event to come back would be Wimbledon.

“As a matter of timing, it just wouldn’t work.

“John is about to become a father.”

McEnroe and his girlfriend, actress Tatum O’Neal, are expecting their first child within a month.

Wimbledon will be played June 23-July 6.

“He’s not definitely out (of Wimbledon), but it’s very unlikely he’ll play,” the elder McEnroe said. “It’s a possibility (that he’ll play) but not more than that. It just doesn’t work.”

(The younger McEnroe, who was at the Laker game Tuesday night, along with his girlfriend, Tatum O’Neal, told a Times reporter: “I don’t want to talk. I have nothing to say. I don’t know. How’s that?)

McEnroe’s father said that his son probably would return to tournament tennis before the U.S. Open, to be played Aug. 25-Sept. 7.

“It’s just a guess, but that’s a logical explanation,” McEnroe Sr. said.

Since January, McEnroe has played only in three exhibition matches. His last match was two weeks ago in a charity exhibition at Scottsdale, Ariz.