John McEnroe is set to play doubles once again on the main ATP tour next year despite being 46-years-old.
McEnroe, currently competing in the Masters event at London’s Royal Albert Hall, is to partner Swedish doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman in a tournament in San Jose starting on February 13.
As well as being one of the greatest singles players of his era — he won three Wimbledon and four United States Open title — the American was the last leading player to enjoy consistent doubles success.
Together with compatriot Peter Fleming he captured seven Grand Slam titles. But it is 13 years since McEnroe won the last of his five Wimbledon doubles crowns, alongside Germany’s Michael Stich.
McEnroe insisted his comeback was not a mere publicity stunt although he said he was concerned by the way doubles had been downgraded in recent years. ”We are going there for one reason — to win the title. Doubles has been struggling and I thought if I could get a little attention focused on it, it might help. I know I can still play,” McEnroe said on Thursday.
He added several leading doubles players has asked him to partner him and said: ”Jonas is a great doubles player. I think we could prove to be a formidable team.”
From next season, the doubles will feature a new scoring system with a final set in tour events being decided by a match tie-break (the first team to 10 points).
Meanwhile McEnroe said he had not ruled out a return to Wimbledon.
”I still have a lot of events I play on the Champions Tour, which keep me busy, but the option to play more doubles is there. We’ll see what happens when I get out there.
”The ones you are most tempted by are the big events and that’s where I’ve been lucky. I do commentary work at them and to do both — playing and commentary — is difficult.
”They still play best of five sets at Wimbledon. The French Open would be more viable in terms of schedule but it’s the surface I’m least comfortable with.
”There’s always reasons to look at it and you never know what will happen — Wimbledon’s something I do think about now and then.” – Sapa-AFP