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Bjorn Borg On Wimbledon, John McEnroe And Life After Tennis


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(April 29, 2010) John McEnroe married a rock star — one of his most memorable moments on court came when he played a rock star.

Bjorn Borg is not a musician, but McEnroe recalls the reaction Borg evoked walking through the grounds at Wimbledon as a hysteria similar to Beatlemania.

"It was amazing. It was like a combination of Elvis and the Beatles," McEnroe told The Boston Globe's Stan Grossfeld of the reception Borg received at Wimbledon. "Never before have I seen Wimbledon like that. It’s never happened before and it’s never happened since."
 
McEnroe and Borg are in Boston for this week's $150,000 Staples Champions Cup and took time out to reminisce about their rivalry and state of the game today.

The 53-year-old Borg is secure with his place in tennis history and calls 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer the greatest of all time.

"Something happened with tennis that was a positive thing, and I was happy to be part of it," Borg told The Boston Globe. “Most people remember me as a great player and I’m very happy for that, but even so, Roger Federer is the greatest player to ever play the game.’’

The classic 1980 Wimbledon final in which Borg fought off McEnroe remains one of the highest-quality clashes in Wimbledon history. The mercurial McEnroe fought off five match points to win that fourth-set tiebreaker (he saved seven match points in the fourth set overall), but Borg’s brilliance in the fifth set saw the stoic Swede earn a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(16), 8-6 victory to capture his fifth consecutive Wimbledon crown.

"You had two different personalities,’’ Borg told The Boston Globe. “I come from Sweden, where our mentality is a little laid-back, a little more quiet. John grew up outside New York and he’s a little bit more outspoken."

The fourth-set tiebreak was a titanic tennis tug of war and wills spanning 30 points and several pressure-packed minutes and the mesmerizing shots produced by both players left spectators simply spellbound. The fourth-set tiebreaker was recognized as the 19th most memorable sporting moment in history in a BBC poll to determine the 100 most memorable sporting moments.

In past interviews, Borg has revealed so many fans are fixated on McEnroe’s match-point saving heroics in the fourth set, they often forget Borg came back to win the match.

"People come up to me quite often and say: ‘That tiebreak was incredible tennis. Amazing. You played so well, it’s a shame you lost it,’ " Borg said. "They remember that fourth-set tiebreaker so well that many people forget I came back to win the fifth. I never correct them. You know, people talk about how focused I was to come back and win the fifth set, but walking to my chair after losing the fourth set tiebreaker, I was very, very disappointed. I thought I had just lost the match. It has to be one of the best matches I have ever played at Wimbledon. I thought after I lost the fourth set, I would lose the match. I was exhausted, especially after all those match points, but I didn’t give up."

The power of perseverance — combined with Borg’s highly underrated serve that saw him serve five love games and win 28 of the final 29 points on his serve in the fifth set — carried Borg to an unforgettable triumph in one of the most memorable matches in Grand Slam final history.

The depth of Borg's determination dumbfounded McEnroe.

"I felt like I lifted my game on adrenaline to get through that great tiebreaker,’’ McEnroe told The Globe. “I thought he would go away, but he showed me even more will that I didn’t know even existed. He taught me something — that you have to be even hungrier and want it more and to dig even deeper."

McEnroe dethroned Borg in the 1981 Wimbledon final and while many, including McEnroe, believe the left-hander's rise to the World No. 1 ranking after he beat Borg in the '81 US Open final led to the Swede's decision to call it quits, Borg himself disputes that theory.

"No, no, no,’’ said Borg. “I enjoyed playing John. John was coming up and it was great. I enjoyed the rivalry. But I stepped away because I was sleeping and eating and playing tennis. I did that for many years. There was more things to experience in life."

Post-tennis life experiences have been up and down for Borg, whose clothing company nearly went bankrupt in the 1980s, but has bounced back as a leading underwear company in Sweden. There were rumors of a suicide attempt when Borg was married to his second wife, an Italian pop star, but Borg shot down allegations that he tried to kill himself with an overdose in the '80s.

"Why should I want to kill myself?’’ Borg told The Boston Globe. “Life is too precious. I have too many good things in life."

The six-time French Open champion generated international headlines when he put some of his Wimbledon trophies and rackets up for auction. Borg, who now calls it "the stupidest decision I ever made", bought back the items after fellow players, including McEnroe, and fans dissuaded him.

“If you came to our house, you would not see one thing associated with tennis,’’ Borg told The Boston Globe. “You would not know that I played tennis. I don’t keep things. I give away cups and rackets for charities. I got this great idea, I’m going to sell these Wimbledon trophies, and it was the stupidest decision I ever made.’’

McEnroe responded by calling Borg and talking him out of the auction.

“I spoke to John and he said, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ ’’ Borg told The Globe. “The response over the world was, ‘You cannot sell this.’ The fans said, ‘We’ve been part of this. This is history.’ So I had to change my mind and I bought back the trophies for a lot of money, and now I have them all at home and I will not sell them.’’



 

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