McEnroe Starts Out the Year on the Right Foot : He Handles Both Australian Open Winner Edberg and Interview in ’87 Debut

The 1987 unveiling of John McEnroe yielded no great surprises on the court or in the interview room.

It was Classic Mac, serving and volleying his way past Stefan Edberg, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, in the Michelin Challenge Series before 8,613 Monday night at the Forum. There was more Classic Mac afterward, serving up his opinions on everything ranging from Boris Becker to the Davis Cup.

Here’s a sampler. . . from The World According to John:

--On the Davis Cup: “He (Capt. Tom Gorman) has officially invited me the last few times. It’s just that the others haven’t.”

--On why he skipped the Australian Open: “ . . . It’s a bad environment. I think I’d have been asking too much for myself to play down there. I might have got rushed and got in trouble. I don’t regret my decision.”

--On Lendl: “Lendl’s been a roll. There’s no way that will continue. He’s just building himself up for a fall. He’s been injury-free . . . realistically, it will be very difficult to keep up.”

--On the pressures on Becker: “It’s going to make it more difficult on him (as he goes up in the rankings). It’s very difficult for a young person to handle so much. Especially if he gets better, if he continues to progress the way he does. He’s No. 2. It’s very similar to where I was at that age. . . . It only gets more and more (pressure). He’s handled it quite well.”

As far as McEnroe’s on-court performance was concerned, it wasn’t surprising he has able to handle Edberg. Edberg was coming off a grueling, five-set victory over Pat Cash for the championship of the Australian Open Sunday.

True, Edberg was able to pick up some hours flying from Melbourne to Los Angeles but spending 13 hours in a plane certainly didn’t help his game.

It showed as he wilted in the third set, and McEnroe broke him twice for the victory.

“It was a good match considering I had two months off and he had traveled so far,” McEnroe said. “He played phenomenally well for two and a half sets, considering he came so far.”

Said Edberg: “I thought I played quite well after all the travel.”

In the third set, McEnroe broke Edberg in the second and fourth games. At 1-0, McEnroe broke him at love, finishing the game with a forehand crosscourt passing shot.

At first, it started to look like a repeat of Edberg and McEnroe’s last two confrontations. In those matches, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, they had stayed even until McEnroe got late service breaks.

It happened again in the first set. Both stayed on serve until the 10th game when McEnroe hit a backhand passing shot to win the first set, 6-4.

Edberg, though, shook off his tiredness to take the second set, 6-4. This time, the crucial service break came early, rather than late in the set. Edberg broke McEnroe in the first game at 30.