Joker McEnroe uncovers new side of Graf

Steffi Graf covered her mouth in horror. She could hardly believe what her doubles partner John McEnroe was saying. McEnroe was blabbing away at his first press conference.

The two players had just come off a packed Centre Court having beaten and humiliated Jeff Coetzee and Eva Melicharova in the first round of the mixed doubles at the championship.

"Steffi, at the first change John cracked you up. What did he say?" Graf was asked.

McEnroe answered: "`I'm the greatest player of all time'. That brought a big laugh from her."

He added: "I think it was looking at that girl's (Melicharova's) serve. She needs a little work on that."

"Don't say that," pleaded Graf.

"She changed it (the serve) mid match," added McEnroe. "We held back. It was the crowd, wasn't it? Steffi was laughing. I wasn't."

It was unusual to see Graf so disarmed, belly laughing in front of the world's media and suffering from a fit of the giggles.

Half embarrassed, but enjoying McEnroe's comic turn, here was a 30-year-old champion, one of the best female players in the history of the game, looking into the face of a 40-year-old champion and simultaneously besotted and alarmed by the fearlessness at which the New Yorker was tackling the questions.

"Do you know Clijsters?" asked someone else, referring to Kim Clijsters, Graf's opponent in the singles draw. Graf offered a competent answer based on their previous tennis meetings and Clijsters' playing style.

McEnroe, half distracted and fidgeting with an ice pack on his arm which refused to stay in place, interrupted again.

"Steffi is going to destroy another teenager mentally. (Martina) Hingis is a basket case," he said smiling and turning to his partner. "You see, it's nice to be 30."

Graf's baptism of fire has not diluted her enthusiasm in playing with McEnroe for the first time as a doubles team, one which has had crowds feverishly queueing to watch the German's imperial forehand and the American's feathering of the ball around court in a way in which he alone excels.

When the left-hander's regular touring partner, Peter Fleming, was once asked who the best doubles team in the world were, his reply was "John McEnroe and anybody else." Not a bad tribute.

But where McEnroe acts the no-bull jester with Graf as his willing but sensitive side kick, the two are serious about the championship.

"I've been playing the seniors. I'm not totally extinct yet," he says. "It is just that I've always felt that if I stepped on the court in a major event, if I was going to be playing, I wanted to feel that I had a chance to win the tournament. We do have a chance, I believe, to win."

While Graf has just returned from two years of relative famine, the two have 10 Wimbledon titles between them, McEnroe three and Graf seven. But titles are not what draws in the interest. Graf's combination of being both bossy and fragile combined with McEnroe's menace and explosive nature have a magnetism of their own.

If McEnroe strips the green paint with expletives or turns on a line judge how will the ever courteous Graf react?

McEnroe hasn't wiped the floor with an official for some time but he can still play tennis and Graf at 30 is giving the lie to the belief that you have to be a teenager or barely out of your teenage years to succeed in the women's draw.

"You know when we walked out I was kind of . . . proud to play with you," said Graf turning to her partner. "Very proud. It was a great feeling to be out there."

"Me too," acknowledged McEnroe, shifting uncomfortably under the sincere admiration from Graf.

"It was, like, meant to be. It's been 20 years for me but I couldn't have picked a better partner. Onward and upward," replied McEnroe.

"And the (Jim) Courier match with (Tim) Henman?" asked a journalist.

"Well, you know I think he's sweating already. You'd better believe what's going on in Tim's mind. You'd better believe that he wanted (Sjeng) Schalken to that match (against Courier).

"There is a great opportunity for him (Henman) to erase some demons, get over that Davis Cup debacle where the Brits choked their little fannies off. You know it was beautiful to watch."

McEnroe's ability to trample on sensibilities and still retain people's affections is what separates the older player from the younger. The grey hair is more pronounced now but his physical condition is close to what it always was while Graf is still admired for an athleticism that several of the players here this year would benefit from trying to emulate - Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles, and Lindsay Davenport, to name a few.

With Jelena Dokic already invigorating the competition on the women's side and Andre Agassi crusading once again in the men's competition as a baseliner against the power deliveries, Wimbledon has already been enchanting.

At the same time, the serene Graf, the powder-keg McEnroe and the Wimbledon crowds are learning that the twilight of tennis careers bring their own candles.