HE’S NOT FINISHED YET : After All the Shouting and Screaming, John McEnroe Still Has Something Left

John McEnroe, arbiter of good conduct, gracious opponent and counselor to the young, was having a small relapse. His racket had committed that offense punishable by death--an error--so he slammed it to the ground and kicked it half the length of the tennis court. He placed his hands on his hips and began what might have been, had he continued, a wail. But then a remarkable thing happened. He stopped.

Not completely, of course. There are certain forceful emotions--those wracking tremors and heaving sighs of pure anguish--that McEnroe will never subdue. But he is 30, a doting father of two with a new equilibrium and apparently a new tennis life as well. His behavior is on the whole composed and quite bewildering. His game, after a three-year decline, is at last approaching something like its previous form.

He is relaxed and fit and currently No. 6 in the world, winner of two tournaments within three weeks in February. Only a year ago he was laboring at No. 25 and making early exits from tournaments, like his first-round loss to Diego Perez at the Tournament of Champions. He returned to the Forest Hills tournament last week to play doubles only, with younger brother Patrick, in hopes of sharpening his game on clay in preparation for the French Open next month, because a major championship is suddenly possible again.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think so,” he said.

McEnroe may never again achieve the sublime as he did between 1979 and 1984, when he won three Wimbledon and four U.S. Open singles titles and was ranked No. 1 for four straight years. But with a 20-3 match record this season, he is making semifinals with regularity and seems only a fraction away from resuming his place in the top echelon. It is his best start since 1985, and also one of his most enjoyable.

“He’s hungry again,” said television analyst Mary Carillo, a former player and longtime friend who once teamed with McEnroe to win a French Open mixed-doubles title. “I think for a while he didn’t love tennis. Now it’s his identity again, it’s like at some point he fell in love with it all over again.”

His once sneering relationship with crowds has turned almost sentimental. He has balanced tennis with his family life, wife Tatum and sons Kevin and Sean, and he is rarely seen off the court without a stroller. His nervous psyche has calmed, as he has conceded that the famous tantrums had become self-destructive.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” he said. “It’s been like climbing. You don’t just take eight steps on a ladder. It’s feeling more enjoyment playing than I have in a long time. It’s a better concept of juggling family life. I got stronger, healthier.”

He defeated No. 1 Ivan Lendl in the semifinals in winning his WCT title in Dallas, after winning the Grand Prix at Lyons. His only losses have come to the best in the world: He made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open before falling to Lendl, lost to Boris Becker in the semifinals of Milan, and to Stefan Edberg in the semis at the Japan Open.

He was the clear leader of the Davis Cup team that defeated France soundly last month in San Diego, where he doled out match and behavioral advice to Andre Agassi, the teen idol who has struggled with both his tennis and his image after rising to No. 3 last year.

“Who better than somebody who’s been through it?” Agassi said at the time.

“John set the tone for the team in practices and matches,” Davis Cup captain Tom Gorman said. “He showed how a great player plays great matches. He’s doing it again, that’s what I see.”

McEnroe’s decline was not clear-cut, just an overall fraying of his game and temper. In 1984, arguably his finest year, he amassed a 79-3 record. But it was never easy emotionally. Never one to train, he began to be betrayed by his body as he suffered nagging injuries. He felt increasing resentment at the chaotic tennis life and demands of being No. 1, and then there were the overwhelming new chores that go with marriage and family.

He slipped to No. 2 in 1985, and his on-court ranting eventually led to his being barred from Davis Cup play when he (and Jimmy Connors) refused to sign a code-of-conduct agreement. In 1986 he lost to Brad Gilbert in the first round of the Nabisco Masters, and by the end of the year had plummeted to No. 14, as he began his series of sabbaticals and attempted returns.

“It was not one thing, it was five or 10 things,” he said. “The difficulty of coping with No. 1, a lot of years of strenuous tennis without protecting myself physically. My body broke down. So when I mentally broke down, and that had always been my strongest part, I was not able to play.

“I needed to get away. With all of my accomplishments, and everything I had done and everything I had, I was looking at the negatives. And I realized I shouldn’t be doing it if I was going to be that miserable.”

McEnroe’s recovery has been a matter of fits and starts, with some desperate measures, enforced absences and misdirected efforts. He appeared to be pulling his game together at the end of 1987 until he was given a two-month suspension and $10,000 fine for code-of-conduct violations resulting from a particularly severe tantrum at the U.S. Open.

He appeared genuinely repentant over the incident, and finally resolved to seek some compromise between being the game’s finest player and its most tortured. “I told myself that the next time the attitude just had to be better,” he said.

But from a technical standpoint, the recovery of his game was no simple matter of resolve. McEnroe plays with the same untutored ease that allows some people to play music by ear, and essentially what he had to do was relearn many skills that depended on instinct and reflex. It was a painstaking process. For the first time he turned his attention to training; he tried yoga and bicycling and massages and diets. “It was like having to learn my body all over again,” he said.

There were some blind alleys. He trifled with various rackets, and altered his strategy to combat power hitters like Becker, only to find that he needed to return to his natural game, with its various paces and artful shot-making. He had stopped playing doubles to spend more time at home. But it turned out that doubles helped some essential facets of his game--his serve, reflexes and touch.

It seemed he was progressing when he made the round of 16 at the French before succumbing to Lendl in four sets, with two tiebreakers. But he lost in the second round at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. The Open was particularly frustrating as he fell to Mark Woodforde of Australia on what is generally considered his home court, scant miles from Douglaston, N.Y. Observers considered it a sign that he was finished, noting his lack of quickness.

“The age wasn’t a question,” Gorman said. “The only aspect you questioned was how a player who has been at the top starts again. When you lose to players you never lost to before, and never dreamed you could ever lose to, how do you deal with that and try to play through it?”

But McEnroe displayed considerable maturity in that loss. “I never felt close to quitting,” he said. “My idea was actually to come back even better. So I felt like I had to win the U.S. Open three weeks later. But that was putting too much pressure on myself; I was trying to do too much.”

After the Open loss, he decided to simplify his physical regimen and took the advice of many of his friends to play doubles again. He has paired with both his brother and Woodforde, and it has had a clear effect on his game. His volleys are sharp and unhesitating, his strokes have regained their pace and angles, and his serve is a weapon again. He served 10 aces in Davis Cup play against Yannick Noah.

McEnroe acknowledges he is still not in peak form, and the true indication of where he stands will probably come the next couple of months in Europe. He pulled out of the Italian Open but is still expected to compete in the French. If he can’t make the final leap to No. 1, he says he doesn’t necessarily desire it, certainly not the way he did before. He was too pursued by its responsibilities, too subject to its pressures. “It’s a difficult position to be in,” he said.

But with his future growing more limited, there may still be some Grand Slam events with his name on them.