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 Wimbledon Notebook Another memorable Centre Court 'performance' by McEnroe
Posted: Monday June 29, 1998 06:08 PM
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- John McEnroe, keep your day job. After doing an interview to entertain the Centre Court during a rain delay Monday, McEnroe broke into a brief, impromptu rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. "O-o say can you see," he sang out, his voice tailing off like a weak serve in a tough wind. A three-time Wimbledon singles champion who also fancies himself as a singer, McEnroe picked Pete Sampras to win his fifth title. "He's one of the greatest players in his sport," McEnroe said. "He's had incredible results here the last five years -- only one loss. That's almost Borg-like. For Pete, Wimbledon is where he's most comfortable." McEnroe said he didn't want his children growing up to be tennis players. "If they're sick and crazy enough to decide they want to be tennis players, that's their decision," McEnroe said. McEnroe said he is happy to be on the sideline in his role as a commentator for NBC. "I look at it like the cake has already been baked and we as commentators can add a little bit of icing to it, a little bit of flavor to the match," he said. "Plus it beats the hell out of working for a living."
Football to take center stageIt's not war, but close to it.England's World Cup match Tuesday in France against Argentina is the most important here in a decade. The English are looking for revenge for the 1986 World Cup when Argentina won 2-1 in the quarterfinals, thanks in part to Diego Maradona's famous "Hand of God" goal. The half-dozen Argentine players at Wimbledon are eating in Tuesday at a rented house in Wimbledon -- sheltered away from the English hordes. "There is a big atmosphere," said Paola Suarez, who won her first-round doubles match Monday teamed with Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual. "Virginia is from Spain but she even noticed it, how much the local players -- really all the players here -- are talking about the World Cup." "I can't imagine I will be watching anything but football on Tuesday," said Roberto Nappo. "The tennis might be my second priority."
Paper lambastes tennisThe Guardian, under the headline "A game in search of a Savior," ran off a list of things wrong with the men's game: too much power tennis, boring players and too many chiefs in form of the WTA (women's tour), ATP (men's tour) and ITF (world governing body)."Tennis has a big problem and is slowly going downhill," said 1996 French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov. "We definitely need to make some changes."
Goran, the quote machineGoran Ivanisevic, who served a record 46 aces last year at Wimbledon and lost, served 44 on Monday and won in four sets over Daniel Vacek to reach the fourth round. The quotable Croatian also double faulted 15 times."My matches are like horror thrillers and you cannot expect anything," said Ivanisevic, twice a Wimbledon runner-up. "It's like a movie. I make the movie, but I don't know the end. That's it."
Thanks for the memories, SamPrior to her fourth-round match Monday, Britain's Samantha "Sam" Smith was the toast of the country, the first British woman to reach the fourth round since 1985.She spent much of Sunday doing interviews, her photo was on the front page of many newspapers Monday and a BBC TV crew followed her as she walked to Wimbledon for her fourth-round match Monday against Nathalie Tauziat. Reality set in quickly as Tauziat, the No. 16 seed from France, beat Smith 6-3, 6-1 in front of a partisan home crowd. "They were really willing me on the whole time, but she really didn't give me a chance to get into the match," Smith said. However, British hopes stayed alive as No. 12 Tim Henman won his match against U.S. Open champion Patrick Rafter to reach the quarterfinals for the third straight year. Serve and volley: Despite rain five of the first seven days, chief referee Alan Mills says this year is better than last. "This year's Wimbledon is by no means as bad as last year, which was my worst," Mills said. "In any case, I'm too tired at night to have nightmares. I drink coffee all day and sleep all night."
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