Magnificent McEnroe Downs Wilander On Day One In Delray

John McEnroe kicked off his 2010 ATP Champions Tour campaign in style on Saturday evening with an impressive 6-4, 6-3 victory over Mats Wilander at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships in Florida.

On the first day of a brand-new event, the pair were greeted onto the Stadium Court by a packed crowd and an electrifying atmosphere, and the match did not disappoint. McEnroe, who turned 51 earlier this month, went down an early break to trail 1-3, but a couple of close line calls and altercations with the umpire served to fire up the former World Number One, and before long he had twice broken the Wilander serve and captured the opening set 6-4.

The trend continued in the second set, with McEnroe producing the deft touch at the net that he is famous for along with some punishing baseline winners. Wilander put up a strong fight, but after an hour and 23 minutes the match belonged to the American. After the match, McEnroe described how much he had enjoyed the experience.

“Saturday night in Delray sure is alright and we were definitely fighting out there,” he said.

“I had some good moments out there tonight, and I’m really pleased with how I played. I think I was a bit lucky to get out of that first set in a way though. He deflated a bit and I had to pick up my game so I felt like I did well to pull it out tonight. I do think it would have helped if I’d called my own lines though!”

In the second match of the day on the Centre Court at the Delray Beach Tennis Centre on Saturday, former World Number One Pat Rafter defeated his Australian rival Pat Cash in a thrilling encounter, 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 (Champions’ Tie Break).

Played under the searing South Floridian sun, this was a true heavyweight tussle between two great serve-and-volley players. Rafter said after the match that he was delighted to win through such a touch battle.

“It is good to come through a match like that,” he said. “We’re both really competitive and Cash played pretty well there for a while and he was actually too good for me. That annoys me a little bit actually because I’m thinking, ‘He’s 44, I’m 37, this shouldn’t be happening!’”

Rafter admitted that getting a win over his compatriot is always extra special, especially given that he was on the losing side of the pair’s last meeting at the AEGON Masters at the Royal Albert Hall in December.

“I’ve got to try and keep on top of Cashy,” he said. “If I don’t then he’ll start burying me and I don’t want that to happen because I’d cop so much stick back home from my brothers saying, ‘what are you losing to Cashy for?!’”

Elsewhere in Group B, Floridian native Aaron Krickstein had to produce some stunning tennis to overcome Haitian-born American Ronald Agenor 6-7(10), 6-3, 10-7 (Champions' Tie Break) in the first match of the day. Krickstein now shares top spot in the group with Rafter.

Also a winner on day one of the Delray Beach ITC was the 1990 French Open champion Andres Gomez of Ecuador, who defeated South African-born American Johan Kriek 6-7(7), 6-2, 10-7 (Champions’ Tie Break).

Matches are played over the best of three sets, with a Champions’ Tie-break (first to 10 points with a clear advantage of two) to decide the winner. After all round-robin matches are complete, the top two players in each group will meet in Tuesday's final.

After Delray Beach, the ATP Champions Tour will move on to Zurich for the inaugural BNP Paribas Zurich Open (March 9-13), and after that will arrive in Bogota, Columbia for the city’s first ever ATP Champions Tour event (March 18-21).

To view the order of play and the round-robin groups, click here.

For tickets to see McEnroe play in Delray Beach, click here. Photo credit: Alese Pechter.