updated 9:57 a.m. ET Feb. 16, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. - John McEnroe’s hair is grayer, his temper tamer and his opponents more powerful than they were when he dominated tennis more than two decades ago.

But one of the game’s greatest doubles players showed he still has some of the skills that helped him win so many tournaments when he made a triumphant return to the ATP Tour.

McEnroe teamed with Jonas Bjorkman to win his first match in 12 years, 6-3, 6-3 over Wayne Arthurs and Stephen Huss on Wednesday night in a match that ended 19 minutes before McEnroe’s 47th birthday.

“The old dog wanted to teach the young guys new tricks,” McEnroe told the crowd before a birthday cake was wheeled out and the fans sang “Happy Birthday.”

McEnroe hit a forehand lob winner on break point to take a 2-1 lead in the second set and then held his serve at love. He held at love again at 4-3 before he and Bjorkman broke Arthurs’ serve. In all, McEnroe won his last 12 points on his serve.

“Hopefully you’re able to show that you have something left in the tank and I think I did that,” he said.

McEnroe says he’s in better shape now than he was when he won seven Grand Slam singles titles from 1979-84. He credits an improved work ethic and the example he has gotten by watching other athletes in their 40s succeed.

“When I watch (George) Foreman become heavyweight champion at 45, and see guys like Roger Clemens and my buddy Chris Chelios, who is the captain of the Olympic hockey team and is 44 and looks like he is cut with granite. He’s unbelievable. ... I’m like way behind these guys. I’m trying to motivate myself to work even harder.”

McEnroe got a standing ovation and waved to the crowd of 7,158 as he was introduced at a tournament he won five times in singles and eight in doubles in his career.

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He hit a volley winner on the first point of the match and held his serve all four times despite having less power than the other three players. He had a 107 mph hour ace in the third game and poached a return by Huss for another volley winner to make it 3-2. His fastest serve of the match was 119 mph.

Bjorkman overcame a slow start after losing a three-setter in singles to Dmitry Tursunov earlier in the day but quickly regrouped.

“I thought how can I feel this way when I have this opportunity?” Bjorkman said. “Everything got better and better. It was awesome to have this opportunity to play with John. I’d seen on TV that forehand crosscourt angle shot. It’s just great to be standing next to him when he hits that one. He had some good quality out there, that’s for sure.”

Arthurs and Huss were seeded second in the tournament. Arthurs won this event last year with Paul Hanley, and Huss won Wimbledon in 2005 with Wesley Moodie.

McEnroe and Bjorkman will play Ashley Fisher and Tripp Phillips in the quarterfinals Friday.

“One down, hopefully three to go,” McEnroe said. “We have to regroup because now all of a sudden we are going to have higher expectations thinking maybe we can do it.”

McEnroe became the first 46-year-old to win an ATP doubles match since Mansour Bahrami teamed with Cedric Pioline to do it in October 2002 in Basel, Switzerland.

McEnroe, who now plays on the Champions Tour for players 35 and older against opponents like Goran Ivanisevic, has not played an ATP event since February 1994, when he and Boris Becker lost to Bjorkman and Jeremy Bates in the semifinals in Rotterdam.

“It’s not like I’m not playing. I’m out there playing on the Champions Tour,” McEnroe said. “I play with some pretty big hitters. Ivanisevic is on the seniors tour and the guy serves 130 (mph).”

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McEnroe has won 77 doubles tournaments in his career, including nine majors in men’s doubles and another in mixed. He is playing this event to try to give a boost to the declining state of doubles and said he might play more events if the opportunity comes up.

It worked for one night because thousands of fans stayed almost until midnight to watch a first-round doubles match.

“I’m hopeful that this will wake people up,” McEnroe said. “Not that it will change the world that I played a doubles tournament. But hopefully people will start to wake up to the fact that we have to reach out to fans instead of just expecting them to be there.”

The ATP has adopted a new doubles scoring system to help generate interest. There are no ad-games in the first two sets and if a match is tied at one set apiece, the teams will play a tiebreaker to decide the match. The first pair to get 10 points, with a two-point advantage, will win. McEnroe and Bjorkman won all four games that went to 40-40.

It took a while for McEnroe to get on court. The day session lasted 11 hours, 4 minutes and third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt didn’t start the featured singles match of the night session until 9:20 p.m.

Hewitt, playing his first match since injuring his left ankle in a second-round loss to Juan Ignacio Chela at last month’s Australian Open, beat former Stanford star Paul Goldstein 6-4, 6-2.

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