Is McEnroe Mellowing? Woodforde Thinks So

John McEnroe, in his first appearance in the Australian Open since 1985, says he has made a conscious effort to relate to the fans here at the National Tennis Center.

And he has become a crowd favorite, the fans seeming to appreciate his tennis ability for all its artistry.

Has he made a conscious effort with the lines judges, too?

It might not have looked that way last Friday when he was fined $500 for verbal abuse of a linesman, but McEnroe is trying to take a more mellow approach.

And Mark Woodforde of Australia, who in this tournament is McEnroe’s doubles partner for this first time, says he has seen a change.

“After I beat him at the U.S. Open (last year), he came up to me and shook hands and said, ‘Good match, Mark. You played really well and I hope you do well in the tournament.’

“No one ever does that. I think that’s an indication that he’s trying to change and I think he’s achieving it.”

McEnroe, seeded seventh here, says he thinks he has made “a transition from a real kid to a man.”

“Just seeing what I’ve done in the past, I realize it’s not what I want to be doing when I’m 30,” he said. “I’ve changed quite a bit in the last 2 years for the better.”

But with his 30th birthday less than 5 weeks away, McEnroe says his game has not taken a turn for the better as quickly as he would like. He says he has not found the inner drive he once possessed, and is not sure if it will ever come back.

“I now wonder how I was that intense for that long of time; that I was able to get up for so many matches,” he said after beating Patrick Kuhnen of West Germany, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, in the third round here. “In retrospect, I actually felt like I had come back too soon. I would probably have liked to take more time off to get the juices flowing more.”

McEnroe said the pressure from family, friends and sponsors played a part in his decision to return to the game.

The break was necessary to evaluate his life and take responsibility for his world outside a tennis court.

“The 8 or 9 years on the circuit had gone so fast,” said McEnroe, whose wife Tatum O’Neal and two sons chose to stay at home in Malibu rather than making the trip to Australia. “I had accomplished a lot in tennis and received a lot of rewards for it, but I was looking at life negatively. I needed to take a step back and decide where I wanted to go, especially as a human being.”

Today, McEnroe says he has a desire to win, but doesn’t let the desire run his life.

“It’s a great challenge to try to get to the top again, but I’m not going to try to worry about being No. 1. In some ways, I’m not sure if I want to be No. 1 again because I don’t want to be on top again the way it was in the past. I wasn’t enjoying myself the way I would have liked.”

Players such as Woodforde welcome the new McEnroe as a friend.

“It was a strange feeling last week driving to play golf in my new car, in my hometown, with John sitting in the passenger seat. I had to pinch myself to believe it was all happening,” Woodforde said. “I can’t believe tennis has given me the opportunity to be friends with a guy I’ve always admired.”

For McEnroe, the trick is getting more than Woodforde to notice the change.