John McEnroe returned to the Royal Tennis Hall on Thursday _ 21 years after his fourth and last singles title in the Swedish capital _ and teamed with Jonas Bjorkman to beat Andreas Vinciguerra and Johan Landsberg 6-3, 6-2 in a first-round match at the Stockholm Open.
``It's nice to be back,'' said McEnroe, who first played Bjorn Borg in the small structure built in the 1930s that is the oldest arena built for tennis on the ATP Tour.
``Obviously, he was the greatest rival I've ever had. I remember the noise the people made with their feet,'' McEnroe said. ``But I don't remember people throwing stuff _ that's a new one.''
He was referring to several fans who threw seat cushions onto the court after the match.
``It was surprising, a little disappointing actually to see that. I don't know what was going on. It was sort of weird,'' he said. ``I don't know what they were thinking.''
The 47-year-old McEnroe received a standing ovation when he came in for warmups, and the record crowd of 4,863 gave him another standing ovation after the match.
McEnroe's serve was never broken, but faced two break points. He saved both. With Bjorkman serving, McEnroe won his first point with an easy overhead. He also forced the Swedish opponents to miss the last point of the game after a long rally.
The match drew a sellout crowd despite starting late in the evening. Among those watching were Borg, a five-time Wimbledon champion, and Stefan Edberg, another Hall of Famer who is the only player along with McEnroe to top both singles and doubles rankings in ATP history.
``Bjorn was there, I saw Stefan and lot of the other players came in so it added to excitement,'' McEnroe said.
McEnroe who retired from the ATP Tour in 1992, played his last doubles event on the tour in February at San Jose, California, with Bjorkman. They won the tournament, giving McEnroe his 78th doubles title. It's second only to Todd Woodbridge's 83 titles.
Bjorkman and his regular partner Max Mirnyi are in second place in the ATP doubles race and have already clinched one of the eight spots at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, China, next month.
Earlier, defending champion James Blake went through to the singles quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Germany's Simon Greul.
The second-seeded American will next meet Olivier Rochus, the sixth seed from Belgium whom he beat last year.
``I definitely remember that and I'll try to remember it more so tomorrow when I play him again,'' Blake said. ``I have good memories of the last two times I played him. But he's an excellent player.''
The 26-year-old Blake moved himself up to sixth place in the ATP Race by winning the title in Bangkok two weeks ago. The top eight qualify for the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup.
``I would love to make it, I've heard so many good things about it,'' Blake said.
Blake has won a career-high four ATP titles this season. Only Roger Federer (nine) and Rafael Nadal (five), who lost in the first round here Wednesday, have won more.
Feliciano Lopez also reached the quarter-finals, beating fourth-seeded David Ferrer 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in an all-Spanish match.
Jarkko Nieminen, who won Finland's first ATP singles title in Auckland, New Zealand, early this year, also reached the last eight by defeating Marc Gicquel of France 6-3, 6-2.
Nieminen and Lopez will meet in the quarter-finals on Friday.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
