McEnroe Suddenly at a Loss : Four-Time Champion Loses to Annacone on First Day of U.S. Open

NEW YORK —  This wasn’t in the master scheme. This wasn’t supposed to happen. And John McEnroe, the man it is happening to, is baffled.

“It’s not working out the way I had planned,” McEnroe said, trying to find some way to explain his 1-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 loss to Paul Annacone Tuesday in the first round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow.

McEnroe’s plan went awry somewhere between thought and action. It was such a lofty plan. He was going to round out his life, become more of a person, not just another narrow jock.

The birth of his son, Kevin, and his marriage to Tatum O’Neal were part of the plan, too. They might be the only things that have been going right in McEnroe’s life.

The plan was for McEnroe to take seven months off the professional tour, spend time with his family, train and come back stronger than before.

That hasn’t happened. McEnroe came back about 16 pounds lighter, as he had planned. That backfired. “I ended up probably losing too much weight,” McEnroe said. “Now I’m not nearly as strong as I should be. So I need to re-evaluate now because it didn’t turn out the way I would have liked it to. I was trying to get myself in better shape, and in reality I just got skinny. I look better in the mirror.”

But not on the court. Unlike the rest of us, McEnroe’s failures are very public. And, as the world witnesses his professional disintegration, McEnroe struggles in very obvious disgust.

He said flatly Tuesday that he wasn’t mentally or physically ready to play. The four-time U.S. Open champion also said he had mistimed his comeback. “I think I should have come back either sooner or later,” McEnroe said. “But not the way it turned out.”

His first public appearance after the layoff was an exhibition against Ivan Lendl in Los Angeles that Lendl won. McEnroe fought and fought against Boris Becker but eventually lost at the Volvo International at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

He lost in the third round to doubles specialist Robert Seguso in Toronto. Five days ago, he beat Annacone in straight sets but then lost to Lendl in an invitational event on Long Island.

It was there that McEnroe first began to talk of “re-evaluating.” It was taken by reporters as a code word for retirement.

“That’s something that I have to look at,” McEnroe said in a packed press conference Tuesday.

McEnroe and Annacone began play Tuesday morning before a sparse crowd on Stadium Court. As the 2-hour 26-minute match progressed, fans poured in to watch as the news of an impending upset filtered to even the outer courts of the tennis center.

What they saw was either the frayed end of a spectacular career or a man who, at 27, is reconsidering how that career fits into his life, if at all.

McEnroe will likely ask himself if losing to the No. 20 player in the world is acceptable. His own ranking will fall from No. 9, which he had regarded with distaste, to No. 21. That was McEnroe’s world ranking at the end of 1977.

McEnroe will also look hard at some discouraging statistics: This was only the second time he has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam event. McEnroe’s loss to Brad Gilbert in the first round of the Master’s in January was the impetus for his hiatus.

In Tuesday’s match, on a cool and windy day, McEnroe started strongly but his intensity lessened and the match slipped away.

“I thought I started out pretty well,” McEnroe said. “I just wasn’t able to keep up my concentration level. I let things get me down.”

It was certainly not the McEnroe that fans had come to know and hate. Gone were the arguments, the throwing of rackets, the swagger. The new McEnroe double faulted 9 times, committed 30 unforced errors and served only 3 aces. Annacone had 4 double faults, 12 unforced errors and 23 aces.

The dominator had been dominated.

“He played well in the first set today and got on top of me,” Annacone said. “But I was fortunate to switch the momentum a little bit in the second set.”

Annacone won the second set on the strength of his own powerful service games and McEnroe’s failing serves. Annacone broke in the second and sixth games to win the second set and in the third and ninth games to win the third.

“In the first set, I thought (his serve) was horrendous,” Annacone said. “I felt like I was swinging 700 m.p.h. and the ball was going nowhere. After that I started to relax a little bit more and just got really fluid with my serve.”

McEnroe was listless in the final set, and Annacone won it in only 38 minutes.

On the final point, playing at the net, McEnroe punched a forehand volley wide. As Annacone raised his hands in triumph, McEnroe stared at the spot on the court where the ball should have gone. McEnroe always was the epitome of a touch player. Now, the ball would no longer do his bidding.

Although the victory was the biggest of his career, Annacone, who like McEnroe is from New York, seemed surprised and a little uneasy with his triumph.

“I felt kind of awkward beating him because he’s a great champion,” Annacone said. “I want to see him come back because I think he’s great for tennis. I’m not sorry that I won. I am very happy with the way I played. But I wish all the best for him to come back.”

As McEnroe left the interview room and Annacone came in, they paused in the doorway. Annacone touched McEnroe’s arm and said softly, “I’m sorry.”

A lot of people are sorry. It’s not pretty to see. But it is something that only McEnroe can work out for himself.