They hadn't made it through the second game of their championship match Sunday when the Sunshine Boys of tennis started in. Watching Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe play, even in an exhibition event like this four-man tournament in Pebble Beach, is like watching two old vaudeville coots driving each other crazy the same way they did 20 years ago.
"You supposed to be right there?" McEnroe snapped at a cameraman seated in a folding chair on the court. "This is where you're supposed to be?" The cameraman clambered into the stands as Connors, on his end of the court, made some crack to the spectators, whose laughter had McEnroe seething."He does jokes at my expense," McEnroe said later. "He's so good at manipulating the crowd that they turn against me for nothing I was doing except looking serious."
A sellout crowd of 4,100 came out to the Lodge at Pebble Beach on a cloudy Sunday afternoon to watch two of tennis's most talented and entertaining players compete for the $150,000 first prize in The Challenge. If they came for the old days it was all here: sniping, foul mouths, histrionics and terrific tennis. McEnroe cursed the linespeople. Connors cursed himself and the linespeople. McEnroe cursed a fan.
They triumphed over their boorishness for the same reason they always have. They're more entertaining than any two athletes who make their living with rackets.
To watch Connors and McEnroe rally - with Connors' pinpoint passing shots and powerful service returns, McEnroe's feathery volleys and deceptive serves - is to point up even more clearly how dull the younger players' nuclear tennis is. Every point was a story in itself, each groundstroke and overhead building toward the climactic moment when one player or the other put the point away in stunning fashion.
Connors took the first set in a 7-5 tie breaker, then won the second 6-4 to win the $150,000. (McEnroe took home $100,000.) But the folks who came out didn't necessarily care who won. And those who analyzed how Connors and McEnroe would fare on the real tour were missing the point. This was about reliving a great rivalry, and despite the fact this match meant virtually nothing and despite the fact McEnroe is now 36 and Connors 43, the feelings between the two are as sharp and amusing as ever.