McEnroe takes two months off

Press, 24 January 1986, Page 30

McEnroe takes two months off

NZPA New York Saying he needs time to rest and get back in shape, tennis star, John McEnroe, has left the professional tour for at least 60 days. The New York lefthander petitioned the men’s International Professional Tennis Council (1.P.T.C.) on Wednesday for a reduction from a mandated minimum of 14 Nabisco Grand Prix tournaments in 1986, saying he needed the time to rest and get himself in shape.

The pro council granted the request. Under the rules, a player who does not compete in any pro tennis

event for a minimum of 60 or more consecutive days can petition the council for a reduction of his commitment. The rule was put into the code of conduct several years ago after Sweden’s Bjorn Borg was unable to play a limited schedule because the rules at that time did not allow for fewer than the maximum, number of tournaments.

Last week, McEnroe reportedly told the French tennis player, Yannick Noah, that he “won’t be playing again until the baby’s come.”

The actress, Tatum O’Neal, McEnroe’s fiance, is expecting their first 4/

child in May. Earlier this month, a London newspaper reported that the couple planned to be married on February’ 17, although McEnroe has denied a date has been set

The London “Sun” reported yesterday that O’Neal has delayed her marriage to McEnroe until after the birth of their child.

The newspaper said McEnroe had agreed to the postponement and quoted him as telling an unidentified friend: “I am willing to wait as long as it takes to find the right moment”

Although McEnroe will not be playing in any

Grand Prix tournaments, • a pro council spokesman noted, that McEnroe has commitments for exhibitions over the next three weeks that he must fulfill, including tonight’ in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A four-time U.S. Open champion and three-time winner at Wimbledon, McEnroe failed to capture a Grand Slam title in 1985 and slipped from No. 1 to No. 2 in the world on the Hewlett - Packard - A.T.P. computer rankings. He was upset by Slobodan Zivojinovich, of Yugoslavia, in the Australian* Open in December and was ousted in the first 4’ . .

round of the Masters last week by a fellow American, Brad Gilbert • John McEnroe has only a "fifty-fifty” chance of winning back his place among the world’s best tennis players, said Philippe Chatrier, president of the International Tennis Federation, in Paris yesterday. Speaking after the council had given McEnroe permission to take two months off, Chatrier said: “He definitely has a big problem. “I don’t know what role .his boredom with tennis and his personal problems

‘Played in his'decision to stop, but an the circum- . stances I don’t give him; unfortunately, more' than a fifty-fifty chance of making a full comeback.” The . federation president was "not at all certain” that McEnroe would ever again compete in the French Open champion? ships, he told “L’Equipe” newspaper. . Chatrier, also a former president of the men’s council, added: “McEnroe has treated members of the council like idiots, but we must overlook such things when a great champion is passing through a crisis. At this time we ought,to'put out our hands to him.”