Tennis legends in Newport Beach

July 26th, 2007, 12:53 am · 1 Comment · posted by Laila

(Pictured from left to right: Billie Jean King, John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova)

Professional tennis usually is a shhh sport. Whispers are all that’s allowed. Not so at Newport Beach’s World Team Tennis match Wednesday between Maria Sharapova’s Newport Beach Breakers and John McEnroe’s New York Sportstimes.

The fans were boisterous, the 1970s music loud, and the players loved it.
I’ve been to many pro tennis matches, and this is the first time I’ve seen Sharapova’s personality on the court. She had fun, laughed, talked, smiled … and oh yeah, still grunted on every serve.

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She looked like a runway model in a tennis skirt, a 6-foot-1 blonde beauty who towered over her female counterparts and looked eye to eye to most of the men. Living in Manhattan Beach, she made the easy drive to Newport on Wednesday to play WTT. She teased McEnroe about his ‘two shades of blue’ pregame outfit, and McEnroe amazingly took it quite well.

McEnroe, now 48 years old, showed a bit of humbleness before the match, saying for the first time in his life he feels like Father Time has a two-set lead on him. He still posseses those magic hands at the net, and his sweet backhand volley in men’s doubles secured the match that gave the Sportstimes an easy victory over the Breakers in the final match of the season.

McEnroe, once known as The Brat for boorish attitude on court, was as sweet as could be Wednesday. After hitting a 116-mile serve for an ace, he rolled up his sleeve and flexed his muscle for the sellout crowd. A fan yelled ‘Johnny Mac!’ and McEnroe turned and said ‘(Rafael) Nadal is jealous.’

There were six other players on the court on Wednesday, four on each team, including Laguna Beach’s Rick Leach who played for the Breakers, but no doubt the fans bought tickets to see Sharapova and McEnroe. And they didn’t disappoint.