McEnroe Still Offers Entertainment Value

You’ll be seeing a lot of John McEnroe--actually, hearing him is more accurate--in the next few weeks during the French Open, followed by Wimbledon next month.

He is bright, funny and almost always utters the first thing that comes into his mind, a rare quality for a television personality. Which is why there seems to be no middle ground regarding McEnroe among fans, journalists and players. But he makes even the most boring match on television interesting, somehow, some way.

Because of his candor, he doesn’t get much credit for his interviewing skills. But at last year’s Wimbledon, he chatted with Pete Sampras after his fourth singles championship and brought out Sampras.

“He [McEnroe] truly loves the game,” Sampras said. “He’s playing and he’s commentating. You see him in the locker room and he still enjoys it. He likes talking to the guys.

“He was much different than [Jimmy] Connors, who got away from the game as it is today. I like to sit and talk to John. He’s very entertaining. He’s kind of . . . such an extrovert. He tells you how he’s feeling. There’s no shyness there. I like that. It’s real and it comes across in his commentating. He obviously knows the game.”

Needless to say, Mac has no shortage of opinions, getting warmed up for the Grand Slams on a recent conference call to promote some upcoming seniors’ events, including one on June 18-21 at Newport Beach.

--On No. 1-ranked Martina Hingis:

“I think that she’s come into a vacuum in women’s tennis,” McEnroe said.

He explained that the recent absences of Steffi Graf and Monica Seles created that void. The injury-riddled Graf, who is contemplating retirement, has played only two tournaments in the last year. Seles, whose father Karolj died from stomach cancer earlier this month, had been playing a reduced schedule because of his illness.

“So you’ve got two of the best players to have played the women’s game in the past 15 years who have not been around to push Hingis,” McEnroe said. “She came in at a time where she’s old beyond her years.”

--On the youth in the women’s game:

“They’re like gymnasts now,” McEnroe said. “I don’t think it’s healthy. These 16- and 17-year-old players are like the top two, three players in the world.”

On Sampras:

“Pete has been up and down,” McEnroe said. “I’m sure he’ll tell you he hasn’t been thrilled with his year.”

On the fleet of Spanish players at the French Open:

“The Spanish players that have been around, they have a tendency to choke up in the French,” he said.

On picking the men’s champion at the French Open:

“This, to me, is [Marcelo] Rios’ tournament to win or lose,” he said. “The stars have been aligned that he should win if he buckles down and plays to his ability. At the moment, it appears to me that he should win this.”

On himself:

My goal is to turn into the George Foreman of tennis,” McEnroe said. “ . . . I mean people like Jack Nicholson and Mick Jagger told me, ‘Don’t change a thing.’ So who am I going to listen to: Mick Jagger or some writer from Tennis USA?’ ”

DRAW DRAMA

Top women’s player helped by draw: Serena Williams. Finally, she won’t have to play her big sister, Venus, in an early round. Serena Williams will play 92nd-ranked Jana Nejedly of Canada in the first round. Next she could face either 46th-ranked Corina Morariu or No. 28 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands. The big-serving Schultz-McCarthy would be a much bigger problem at Wimbledon.

Top men’s player helped by draw: Rios. Yeah, it sounds strange to say, since the guy is surrounded by Spaniards in his quarter. But one of them is Albert Costa, who is coming off a wrist injury, which forced him to default the Italian Open final to Rios. And Carlos Moya, who won at Monte Carlo in April, has not looked like the same player lately.

Never knew much geography: The two bright hopes of German tennis and heirs/proteges of Boris Becker are Nicolas Kiefer and Tommy Haas. They spent a lot of time together recently at the World Team Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany. And now they’ll be spending more time together in Paris . . . playing each other in the first round.

Then there’s two Southern Californians--Davenport and Kimberly Po traveling all the way to Paris to meet in the first round today.

This match could have been played in Rolling Hills or Newport Beach.