JOHN McENROE returned to Edinburgh for the first time in 24 years when he participated in the Brodies Champions of Tennis event at Raeburn Place yesterday.
His last visit was for the Scottish Grass Court Championships in June 1989, a tournament which culminated in his final win over Jimmy Connors.
McEnroe said he would have been surprised if he had been told back then that Scotland would emerge as an unlikely powerbase for the game. "There hasn't been a lot of history of great players here," he said. "People like Andy [Murray] don't come along every day, but then if you told me someone from Mallorca would be the best player that ever lived I probably wouldn't have believed that either. Twenty-five years is a long time."
Yesterday, McEnroe teamed up with Tim Henman to take on Wayne Ferreira and Mark Philippoussis at the close of a day's play during which former world No.1 Carlos Moya eliminated Greg Rusedski from the singles with a 6-3, 7-5 win and Henman lost to Sweden's Thomas Enqvist 6-4, 3-6, 12-10.
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