It’s Game, Set and Act for Connors Against McEnroe

Theater of the absurd or a tennis match?

It’s always a little bit of both when John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors get together. McEnroe provided most of the theatrics, but Connors played the better tennis and won, 6-4, 6-4, Sunday in the finals of The Challenge in front of 4,444 at the Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach.

The Challenge title was Connors’ third in four years on the senior tour. The loss was McEnroe’s fourth in a row in the finals of The Challenge.

Connors kept McEnroe on the baseline most of the day by keeping the ball deep, but it was one of McEnroe’s deep balls that sparked a tirade.

With Connors leading, 5-4, in the first set and the game score at deuce, McEnroe floated a backhand slice toward the baseline. When the linesman made a late out call, McEnroe was angry.

He argued the call with chair umpire Joe Wolf for a few minutes. Finally, Connors decided he had seen enough. He told McEnroe he could have the next two points and the game. He tossed the balls down to McEnroe so he could begin serving at 5-5.

McEnroe was ready to take Connors’ charity, but Wolf decided he couldn’t go along with it. Connors evened up the calls by hitting both his serves out of the stadium, getting the score back to deuce.

Connors won the game, the set and the crowd.

“It was sort of embarrassing me on purpose,” McEnroe said. “It was Jimmy at his best. The crowd falls for that. They make it look like I’m the one who’s the bad guy. It’s typical. It’ going to happen again as long as we play. People don’t get it.”

In the second set, Connors gave another point to McEnroe on a questionable line call. Connors also agreed to replay a point he had won.

But not even his generosity Sunday could save McEnroe. Connors trailed, 4-2, in the second set, but came back to take the last four games. McEnroe’s downfall started in the seventh game of the second set when he missed an easy overhead to give Connors a service break.

“I just completely butchered that shot,” McEnroe said. “I basically choked. You just can’t afford to miss shots like that.”

Especially when Connors was playing as well as he was.

“I hit a lot of balls that I felt were pretty effective shots,” McEnroe said. “A lot of players would have had trouble with them, but he handled them well.

“Jimmy plays very well against me. The guy’s an incredible competitor. I did not play badly. It’s because of his high level [that] I got a little tentative. I felt like it was mine if I could have pulled out that second set.”

In the third-place match, Bjorn Borg defeated Yannick Noah, 5-7, 6-3, and 10-8 in a champions tiebreaker for the third set.