McEnroe meets Borg in team tennis

John McEnroe is 52 years old and Bjorn Borg is 55. But when those old champions re-imagine past dramatic duels, as they did on Randalls Island Thursday in a World Team Tennis one-set special, it's a better slice of the 1980s than disco, New Coke or Cabbage Patch Kids.

Does it matter who won? "Not at this point," said McEnroe who, in fact, won, 5-4.

"Memory," McEnroe said, "is a wonderful thing. I envision my corkscrew slice out wide and hope he doesn't return as well because I can't bend anymore."

It is roughly three decades since they last tangled for their sport's supremacy. They hadn't faced each other in New York City -- where McEnroe's two victories over Borg in U.S. Open finals ultimately chased Borg into early retirement -- since a masters' exhibition 17 years ago.

Yet their names loom as large as ever, representing a time when tennis evolved into a major spectator sport, powered in great part by their rivalry of contrasting styles and opposite personalities. For Thursday's event, a full house of 2,381 attended at Sportime Club, far above the average WTT crowd.

The other leading man of that time -- like McEnroe, as misbehaved as he was good at times -- was Jimmy Connors, and it was Connors who was scheduled to play McEnroe Thursday to raise money for McEnroe's one-year-old Tennis Academy, which is tied to Sportime. Connors' absence, McEnroe kidded, was because Connors "was afraid of both of us."

So he turned to Borg, with whom he has maintained a close friendship since their competitive scraps. "We were in St. Tropez last week together," Borg said, "John's family and my family, and John asked me if I would play and I said, 'Of course.' The respect I have for John, on and off the court, for me it's a tough decision to say 'no.' "

That saved his fund-raiser, McEnroe said, to provide scholarships, coaching and transportation for players at his academy.

In the old days, McEnroe's famously emotional contortions mostly abated whenever he played Borg, and he often has said he felt abandoned when Borg's retirement stole his most challenging competition.

Borg, asked if he had any regrets about quitting at 26, insisted he did not, except "maybe not playing John a few more times. The great rivalry we had; this guy was the biggest thing for me in tennis."

In the one-time deal within the World Team Tennis format, in which a handful of tour stars occasionally appear with players just below championship tournament level, and a few old timers (including Martina Hingis on McEnroe's Sportime team), Borg allowed that, "As long as I can stay in shape and play tennis and play against John once in a while, it's a great feeling. What we did for tennis, I'm proud of it, and John's proud of it. We reached tennis to a different level. We were part of what tennis has become today."

Today, of course, the major men's titles have been hoarded by Roger Federer, Rafal Nadal and, most recently, Novak Djokovic. "They're getting closer to our level now, those three guys," McEnroe said. "They're not bad."

He was not being serious.