The ATP Senior Tour of Champions is patently huge fun, and the four-day Honda Challenge at the Royal Albert Hall was a vibrant success, culminating in yesterday's victory for John McEnroe over Henri Leconte in the final.

McEnroe was always `sport with an attitude', loved or loathed in equal measure. These days it is very much `entertainment with an attitude', for the verbal rants - even the abuse - is little more than a ritual reprise for the benefit of the punters. Sure enough, the umpire Kim Craven had to issue a warning against McEnroe for verbal abuse at the end of the second set, while the 38-year-old American, now the father of five, had a further philosophical discussion with a line judge, Syd Slawther.

This later altercation, before the tie break which settled the final after McEnroe had taken the first set 6-2 and lost the second 6-3 against the Frenchman, four years his junior, was no more that a ruse to buy time. "He was perfectly polite," said Slawther. "I think John was a little tired at the end of the second set," grinned Leconte, who warmly embraced the American at the end of the final, and was clearly not the least disturbed, even though he did lose the deciding tie-break 10-5.

"I'm very serious about my tennis, but the other part is iffy," said McEnroe significantly. "I was in the mood to let my racket do the talking, but then I slipped into contractual mode."

Craven - and what fun the tabloids would have had with his name in Mac's superbrat days - appeared a little puzzled as to whether he was witnessing an act, or if the American was genuinely blowing a gasket. "He was effing and blinding, gave me the eyeball, and offered to take me outside," said Craven. This was just showboating.

"The crowd wanted me to get mad, so I got mad," said McEnroe. It has, of course, always been in his nature to be thoroughly contradictory. Earlier in the week, he suggested that the Senior ATP Tour was too keen to abide by the rules; yesterday, when Leconte made a remark during play, McEnroe harangued the umpire for not sticking to those same rules.

There is still no winning against him, but these days it matters not a bean. For this is not sport in any pure sense, this is entertainment -and none the worse for that, unless, of course, any sensitive souls really take it seriously. The more relevant point is that back in the real game, the world of Pete Sampras, Greg Rusedski, and Tim Henman, the ruling ATP Tour have so clamped down on emotional outbursts that today's players too often appear robotic and totally lacking in charisma.

Here McEnroe made a serious point. "There is not really as outlet for emotion in tennis. I watched the rugby on Saturday and watched those guys hitting each other off the ball. In tennis, you feel like a sissy. Perhaps they should have a punchbag on the side of the court."

In McEnroe's case, the punchbag has always been the umpire.