In a short, but entertaining match, John McEnroe triumphed over Jim Courier 6-4, 6-4 in an Exhibition contest indoors at the Casino Rama just north of Toronto, Ontario.

We had 14th row seats in a relatively filled arena to take in the contest and we got mostly what we expected, along with a few higher quality points we didn’t expect.

John McEnroe is nearing 50 years young, and while his serve, and pace has certainly come down a notch, his masterful touch at the net was still as sharp as ever. Watching John put into motion that classic leftie serve ad side wide and coming in to put away the volley deuce side wide is just classic John McEnroe. I don’t care if things have slowed down a bit, it’s still a pleasure to watch.

With that leftie spin on the ad side, a player can know exactly what is coming, but have nearly no option as the spin keeps any hopes of a cross-court angle slim. So often, the ball comes within 2 feet of a charging McEnroe for the easy put away. As a leftie myself, I would love the frustration that the leftie serve could cause. They become helpless.

Jim Courier on the other hand was playing a tad below what I expected him to come out with. Yes, it’s an exhibition match, however he only seemed to bring out the power groundies late in the 2nd, in what was a losing effort anyway.

It’s interesting to watch the contrast in serves between the two. Courier’s feet are inches apart, body much more forward facing. Appears to have a higher toss and more movement forward in the follow-though. On the other hand, John is nearly back facing the court, feet wider and the fluid motion of his inique serve is like watching a pendulum in motion. Surprisingly, his body into the court on the follow through is actually much more intentional that a product of the forward motion produced. It has to be, as anything in front of the service line is really the guys home.

The match was relatively short, about an hour and a half, at most, and that seemed to be mostly because of John’s strolling around the court at times. It was interesting to watch from so close. At times he seemed to almost wander while being in his own world. I’m not knocking it, but he really does seem to go to his own beat.

Both players hammed up the crowds and laughter was present in every game.

This was a great afternoon watching the legends play, even if not at competitive level.

Here’s hoping they make this a tradition in the future.

MarkOskar

Original post by Mark Oskar