Brave McEnroe Forced To Withdraw;

John McEnroe played through the pain of a groin injury before eventually succumbing 6-7(2), 6-3, 11-9 (Champions' Tie Break) to Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and was then forced to withdraw from the remainder of the ATP Champions Tour event in Bogota, Columbia.

McEnroe suffered the injury at the BNP Paribas Zurich Open a week earlier and moved mountains to be fit to play in Bogota. He managed to be competitive against the unbeaten Thomas Enqvist on Thursday and Kafelnikov on Friday, but finally admitted defeat ahead of his final round-robin match. For the most committed man in the 14-year history of the ATP Champions Tour, it was a difficult thing to do.

“I’ve been trying to push through for two matches, but I know that I need to take a break from playing for a few weeks to stop it getting any worse,” said McEnroe. “The best part about coming here was the crowd. They’ve made me feel so at home and I want to prove to them that I can do better so I’d like an opportunity to come back here one more time when I’m 100%.”

The 1990 French Open Champion Andres Gomez will now take McEnroe’s place for the American’s final scheduled round robin match against Jaime Cortes on Saturday.

Former World Number One Kafelnikov wished his beaten opponent a speedy recovery.

"We are so lucky to have John play on our Tour," he said. "He always draws packed crowd so I wish for him to stay healthy and play as many tournaments as he can because he is fantastic."

Kafelnikov will now play off against Thomas Enqvist on Saturday to decide which of the two will advance to Sunday’s final. Enqvist ensured he is still in the running for a final spot when he completed another straightforward 6-3, 6-2 victory over Colombian Cortes in the first match of the day’s afternoon session.

The second day of round-robin matches in Bogota also saw South African Wayne Ferreira defeat 1987 Wimbledon Champion Pat Cash 6-4, 7-5 in the second match of the day’s afternoon session. The result means that Ferreira needs only to beat Ivanisevic in his final match on Saturday to be assured of a place in Sunday’s final.

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