Tennis: McEnroe and Cash still play tough in exhibition games

By TERRY MADDAFORD

John McEnroe swoops across the Tasman today for "exhibition" matches in Christchurch and Auckland with Australian Pat Cash.

But don't expect the one-time "Superbrat" to merely turn up, play a couple of sets of gentlemanly tennis and disappear.

While McEnroe has played hard to get in his role as on-court commentator at the Australian Open - he does nothing, apparently, outside the terms of his contract with Channel Seven.

Cash happily talked of the three-setters he and McEnroe will play in Christchurch tonight and Auckland 24 hours later.

"He [McEnroe] takes the fun out of it," said Cash, who teamed with fellow Australian Kim Warwick to reach the final of the Legends doubles at Melbourne Park where they were beaten, no surprise, by McEnroe and Australian Mark Woodforde.

"Every time he steps on to the court he wants to win," said Cash. "Because of that, you want to beat him. I can assure you, we will not be going out there to clown around. It will be a decent game of tennis.

"These matches are always pretty flat-out. The guys on this [legends/masters] circuit don't like losing."

In their last such clash, in the Netherlands last October, McEnroe won 7-6, 7-6.

Cash, who returns to the ASB Bank Tennis Centre for tomorrow night's Mercedes Challenge after playing Davis Cup for Australia against New Zealand in Auckland some years ago, still plays up to 40 matches a year.

The easy-going Australian, who reckons he steps on court these days at exactly the same weight as he did in his playing days - which earned him one grand slam title (at Wimbledon in 1987) - now juggles playing with his Gold Coast tennis academy.

"When I was given the opportunity to play these matches in New Zealand, I jumped at it," said Cash. "I was keen to get across as a lot of kids from New Zealand have been to my academy.

"I spend about six months of the year at the academy. We work with some pretty good players. GD Jones and his sister have been over. We work fulltime with about 20 kids. Others come and go."

After his matches in New Zealand, Cash will return to the Gold Coast before heading to Europe in March for matches with Boris Becker in Russia and the Ukraine.

The pulling power of these big names is obvious.

Among those contesting the Legends doubles here were, among others, Guillermo Vilas, Mark Edmondson (the last Australian to win the open singles, in 1976) and Peter McNamara. In mixed doubles John Newcombe, Fred Stolle, Liz Smylie, John Alexander and Ken Rosewall strutted their stuff.

But comments made by Cash and McEnroe in the past few days rather than anything on court have captured most attention.

McEnroe cut straight to the point in interviewing Kim Clijsters after she won through to Saturday's final with her semifinal win over Patty Schnyder.

"It's crap, isn't it?" said McEnroe of Clijsters' relationship with fellow Belgian, and now Australian Open champion, Justine Henin-Hardenne.

An obviously uneasy Clijsters deflected McEnroe's taunt. But he had made his point just as he has done, microphone in hand, in post-match interviews at the Rod Laver Arena.

Cash, too, has been in the headlines after he openly criticised fellow Australian and the Open's 10th seed Mark Philippoussis for his apparent lack of effort in bowing out in straight sets in the fourth round to unseeded Hicham Arazi.

At a championship where many matches, especially those in the early rounds of the men's singles and throughout the women's schedule, have lacked excitement, McEnroe and Cash have provided some spark.