For a set, the Old McEnroe can be the Old McEnroe

It is part of the World Team Tennis scheme to have multi-generation head-to-head play. As WTT co-founder Billie Jean King said, "The one great thing about our format is that an older player in their twilight years can still play a set against anyone. If they had to play three-out-of-five for the guys, two-out-of-three for the women, they couldn't keep up. For one set, they can play."

Sure enough, in Wednesday night's Randalls Island match between the New York Showtimes and Philadelphia Freedoms, 51-year-old John McEnroe showed Andy Roddick, who will turn 28 next month, there still is plenty of life, tactics and touch in his game almost two decades into competitive retirement.

They played the maximum number of games to a set under WTT rules, which dispenses with ad scoring and proceeds to a first-to-five-points tiebreak after a 4-4 tie. Roddick won, 5-4 (5-4). And, while McEnroe was unable to take a single point off Roddick's blistering serve until late in the tiebreak, McEnroe controlled his own service games with familiar use of aggressive net play and angles.

McEnroe said he welcomed such a challenge because "I love punishment" and kidded before the match, "I can think of a scenario that I could possibly win: It will be so boring he won't know what hit him."

It wasn't boring. For one set, the old master could play with America's best touring pro.