Tennis: No more Big Mac

Richard Dunn

It was a warm spring day in the month of May and John McEnroe was

in town to highlight Mother’s Day with his fine tennis-playing array.

But that was last year and before the tragic events of Sept. 11.

This year, McEnroe and the Champions Tour will not return to Newport

Beach. Or anywhere else, for that matter.

The tour, part of the men’s worldwide senior tennis circuit, does not

list a 2002 schedule on its Web site, while phone calls and e-mails

placed to tour officials have gone unanswered the past few days.

“I’m not sure those guys are doing so well,” Newport Beach Tennis Club

owner Steve Joyce said, referring to the Pennsylvania-based company,

Quintus, which operated the tour last year.

“The last time I heard anything, they only paid the players 17% of

their guarantee (to play in last year’s Newport Beach event). I guess

they let everyone go, except Henry Brehm. It’s too bad.”

Brehm, the tour’s executive director, did not return phone messages

left on the voice mail of his cell phone.

The tour’s creme de la creme last year, the Masters Championship

featuring the year’s top eight players, was scheduled for Central Park in

New York City Sept. 18-23.

Needless to say, the Masters was canceled, and, apparently, the

terrorist attacks triggered the tour’s downward spiral.

Last year’s Champions Tour at Newport Beach Tennis Club benefited an

adoption agency, raising about $50,000 for the Kinship Center, Brehm

said.

For now, it’s goodbye Johnny Mac, who interestingly went from crowd

hero to villain despite his victory over Pat Cash in the title match last

year at Newport Beach, which was hosting its first major tennis event

since the 1977 Davis Cup.

It was McEnroe’s emotions unraveling -- so what else is new? -- that

turned the Newport crowd against him in the first set of the championship

match against Cash.

One man in the third row of the east-side bleachers hollered, “Throw

your racket, John!” Then McEnroe, ahead 6-5 with Cash serving at 30-15,

glared up at the fan, and what followed was Big Mac’s first of many

expletive-laced remarks throughout the match with ball boys and girls

within earshot.

And, for the first time during the week, the crowd seemed to almost

stop cheering for McEnroe. “Come on, Pat!” became the most frequent

comment heard from the crowd.

McEnroe, however, who thrives on energy from the audience whether

they’re booing or cheering, found another way to rally and capture his

eighth Champions Tour title.

Brehm was disappointed in last year’s attendance for the finals. The

event drew an estimated 1,750 fans on three of the five days, but only

1,500 for the Sunday title match.

“I guess you can’t schedule it on Mother’s Day,” Brehm said last year.

Despite losing the McEnroe Tour, Newport Beach Tennis Club is planning

other events this year, including the inaugural Newport Rumble in

September, which will feature pros and celebrities, Joyce said.

Joyce said the winners of the pro-am event, which is along the lines

of the Huggy Bear Tournament in New York during the U.S. Open, will earn

$100,000 and should attract some of the world’s top players.

The 41st annual Patroness Tea and Fashion Show, a fund-raiser for the

Adoption Guild of Southern Orange County and the official kickoff to the

venerable Adoption Guild Tennis Tournament at Newport Beach Tennis Club,

will be held April 24 at a home in Corona del Mar.

The Adoption Guild Tennis Tournament is May 25-27 and June 1-2. The

event benefits Holy Family Services, the nonprofit charity which has been

helping local families for 50 years.

The Adoption Guild, which, like Memorial Day, represents the

unofficial beginning of summer, is one of the oldest sporting events in

Orange County and has been the largest charity doubles tournament in the

nation.

Last year, the event contributed $108,000 to Holy Family Services.

Newport Beach’s Gail Glasgow is the winningest player in Adoption

Guild tennis history with 11 open titles.

Newport Beach’s Donna Davison, president of the Adoption Guild’s South

Orange County chapter, said 30% to 60% of the agency’s placements each

year involve “special needs” children.

The Adoption Guild has has raised over $2.6 million for Holy Family

Services over the years.