McEnroe a Winner in Return to Masters : Tennis: Three-time former champion defeats Aaron Krickstein in three sets in first appearance since 1986.

Showing flashes of his brilliance of yesteryear, John McEnroe returned victorious to Madison Square Garden and the Masters tennis tournament Wednesday night.

The left-hander at times showed perfect recall of his glorious past, complete with temper tantrums, as he defeated Aaron Krickstein 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the round-robin portion of the tournament.

Later Wednesday, defending champion Boris Becker faced Andre Agassi and Stefan Edberg played Brad Gilbert.

But it was McEnroe’s stage, and he put on a starring performance, hitting seemingly impossible volleys, delicate drop shots and precision groundstrokes.

Yet the demons that have accompanied his brilliance throughout his career also emerged.

After Krickstein jumped out to a 2-0 lead to begin the match, McEnroe suddenly looked like the man who won this season-ending tournament three times, the last in 1985.

He won 14 of the next 15 points, including love games in the fourth and fifth games. He held a love-30 lead on Krickstein’s serve when he went to the net, punched a loose forehand volley wide, then yelled, “Is that phone going to ring all the time?”

McEnroe complained about a noise that no one else, completely engrossed in the action on the court, remembered hearing.

He lost the next point when he sailed a forehand long, then turned and talked to the crowd at his end of the court. The next point was won by Krickstein when McEnroe netted a backhand volley.

Although McEnroe captured the next point to pull to deuce, the spell of terrific tennis had been snapped, his concentration gone. Krickstein held serve, broke McEnroe at 30, then held at 15 to grab a 5-3 lead.

McEnroe staved off a set point to hold in the ninth game and broke Krickstein in the 10th. But Krickstein broke right back in the 11th game, then held to grab the first set.

In the second set, McEnroe continued his game-long dispute with the officials over line calls, and included himself in his vocal outbursts.

“Come on, John,” he pleaded after hitting a simple forehand volley into the net. “All right. Beautiful,” he screamed when his third double-fault of the match slammed into the net.

After the fourth game, which ended on Krickstein’s seventh ace of the night -- a serve McEnroe thought was out -- McEnroe grabbed a ball and angrily slammed it to the other end of the court, earning a Code of Conduct warning from the umpire.

Though whining over the many calls he felt the officials missed, McEnroe lifted his level of play and won 10 of the last 13 games.

It was McEnroe’s first Masters appearance since 1986, when he suffered a first-round loss to Gilbert.

The round-robin continues Thursday when Ivan Lendl plays Krickstein, McEnroe meets Michael Chang and Agassi takes on Gilbert. On Friday, Edberg plays Becker, Lendl plays McEnroe and Chang plays Krickstein.

Each player receives $15,000 for qualifying and $30,000 for each round-robin victory. The winning semifinalists collect $60,000 each and the champion an additional $150,000. A player who wins the title undefeated would pocket $315,000.