McEnroe Has Ace Up His Sleeve in Rally : In a Career First, He Wins After Trailing Cahill, 2-0, at Wimbledon

He’s 30 years old and his hair is bailing out a little bit at the temples, but John McEnroe still knows how to put on a show.

It’s a typical McEnroe routine--throw your racket, get a code violation, serve an ace on match point and walk off the court a winner.

McEnroe keeps coming to Wimbledon and the English keep having this curious fascination with him. They are caught between one urge to throw out the lout and another to shower him with affection.

On a gray, windy Tuesday, McEnroe got the best of them. The Centre Court crowd chose to cheer and McEnroe responded. He came from two sets down in a 3-hour 22-minute first-round match to defeat 23-year-old Darren Cahill of Australia, 4-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 8-6.

This is McEnroe’s 11th trip to the most hallowed grounds of tennis, where in times past he sometimes tossed tradition to the Thames, but on this occasion, he did something new.

Never before in 162 Grand Slam matches, or even in his 13-year career, had McEnroe won a match after losing the first two sets. Perhaps the spectators sensed the measure of his accomplishment, for they gave him a standing ovation after the match.

McEnroe responded with not one, but two arms-raised tributes.

For a while, a celebration didn’t appear to be in the plans. McEnroe, the last U.S. male player to win at Wimbledon, five years ago, narrowly avoided defeat.

Afterward in the interview room, he reacted predictably. He insulted one reporter who questioned him about his 16 double faults (“I don’t give a . . . about what you think about my double faults”), then said there is certainly no question of what he is capable of producing on Great Britain’s most famous front lawn.

“I know I can win this tournament,” he said. “I’ve done it before and I hope to do it again. That doesn’t mean I can just say I’m going to do it and it happens.

“So as far as I’m concerned, talk is cheap. Let’s face it. I could easily be out of the tournament. I mean I’m also proud of the fact I came from two sets down. But I’m not going to pretend to tell you this is like the finals at Wimbledon.”

If things go well for him, that is yet to come, and should he be so fortunate to find himself in the final, McEnroe certainly will need to play better than he did against Cahill, especially at the service line.

“I never really got my game in total gear,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the greatest match (Cahill) played in his career either, but certainly excitement-wise, the fifth set was exciting.”

But the early going was trouble. Delayed nearly an hour by rain, the match quickly swung against McEnroe.

In the first two sets, Cahill worked over McEnroe’s second serve and appeared on the verge of a straight-set, serve-and-volley victory. But McEnroe turned the match when he began to mix his second serves with pace and direction.

He even had a chance to end the match earlier than he did. He held three break points to go up, 3-2, in the fifth, but Cahill saved each one. Not until the set was 6-6 with Cahill serving did McEnroe make his move.

At 30-30, he put together consecutive backhand cross-court service returns and got the breakthat enabled him to serve for the match.

McEnroe double-faulted to 30-30, then served his 11th and 12th aces to close out hisvictory with a yell and a pumped fist.

It was the longest match in terms of games, 51, since he lost to Jimmy Connors in a 54-game, five-set final in 1982. That was during the period in which McEnroe dominated Wimbledon. From 1980-1984, he appeared in all five finals, winning three and losing the others in five-set matches--to Bjorn Borg in 1981 and to Connors.

Such experiences make McEnroe fully aware of what it takes to win here.

“It’s the survival of the fittest,” he said.