Stand: 05.06.2021
Flowing hair, tamed by a headband: Björn Borg set milestones in his short career, like here at Wimbledon in 1980. Today he enjoys life in Stockholm
Those: dpa / epa PA
Björn Borg dominated the Wimbledon lawn like only Roger Federer after him. Since then, the Swiss and others have stolen many records from the old Swedes. Nevertheless, Borg remains one of the greats in the tennis world to this day. He enjoys that to the fullest.
EOne-time Grand Slam winner, over 100 weeks at the top of the world rankings, five-time champion in Wimbledon, style icon of the 70s: Björn Borg could hardly complain about too little admiration and honor in his active professional career. In his opinion, the best is someone else, the Swede said a few years ago.
“Up to this point he’s the greatest player who has ever played the game,” he told CNN in 2016 in one of his rare interviews with Pat Cash about a Swiss named Roger Federer. Nevertheless – the experts agree – Borg remains one of the greats in the tennis world. Now he will be 65 years old this Sunday.
With his successes, Borg laid the foundation for Sweden to become a great power in tennis over the years. It triggered a tennis boom in his home country, as experienced in Germany about a decade later through Boris Becker and Steffi Graf. This boom produced a number of Swedish top ten players, including Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, Thomas Enqvist and many more.
Beginnings at the garage door
It all supposedly started with a garage door that young Björn worked with fore and aft after his father gave him a tennis racket at the age of nine. Borg made his Davis Cup debut at the age of 16 in 1972 – and won in five sets. Since then, the talent, who grew up in Södertälje near Stockholm, has seen a steep upward trend, which in the mid-1970s resulted in Sweden winning the Davis Cup for the first time with Borg.
Borg celebrated his greatest successes at Wimbledon, although he was actually considered a clay court specialist: from 1976 to 1980 he won the world’s largest lawn tournament five times in a row, this feat was only achieved after him by the American Martina Navratilova and said Federer. The Swede collected his six other Grand Slam victories on the red ashes of Paris, where he won the French Open in 1974, 1975 and from 1978 to 1981. The four titles in a row in Roland Garros were also a record in the Open Era, which only Rafael Nadal cracked.
Legendary hitting position: Björn Borg won the final at Wimbledon in 1976. He then won the tournament four more times
Those: dpa / UPI
With his variable grip position – forehand in Western grip, backhand in Eastern grip – and the powerful topspin, Borg dominated and revolutionized the sport, his two-handed backhand still brings tears of happiness to many tennis fans’ eyes. He stopped at the age of 26 and later attempts to make a comeback failed. “No men’s career in the modern era has been so short and bright,” writes the ATP about him.
Rivalry with McEnroe
But nothing remains as connected to Borg as the great rivalry with John McEnroe. The tie-break of the fourth set in the 1980 Wimbledon final is one of the great moments in tennis history. A film about them was even released in 2017, “Borg / McEnroe” with Sverrir Gudnason and Shia LaBeouf in the leading roles. Today it is often forgotten that with Jimmy Connors and later also Ivan Lendl two more shaped this tennis era.
As part of the ATP senior tour, Borg played doubles with Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Gerhard Schröder (right) in 1992
Source: dpa / Rolf Rick
Borg and McEnroe were stylized as perfect opposites: McEnroe was always seen as an aggressive hothead, Borg as his stoic, always cool nemesis. This earned him the nickname “Ice Borg” in the media. “The calmest man on the pitch,” said the commentator in said tie-break against McEnroe about Borg when it was just 16:16 and the Swede had already given away several match points. Others would have long since got an iron arm in this situation – Borg stayed calm and won 8: 6 in the fifth.
Every tennis player knows: the serenity shown on the outside is often just a facade. And that was even the case with the ice-cold Scandinavian, as he revealed in a talk with Federer and Tim Henman at the ATP Finals 2020. “Of course, as a player, you get so frustrated sometimes. You want to scream, but you still have to leave that in, ”said Borg. He had helped himself get a three-month suspension at the age of 13 after a fit of anger for bad behavior. “When I got back from it, I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to be suspended again. Because I love tennis and wanted to play tennis. “
Borg’s son also plays
And McEnroe? Eventually became a good friend. On the Scandinavian TV show “Skavlan”, the American described him as “my best rival, my great friend Björn Borg”, before telling a little anecdote about the underwear and fashion brand named after Borg. “He’s pretty nice,” said McEnroe. “He always gives me free underwear when I come to Stockholm.”
Björn Borg 2017 at a Laver Cup press conference
Source: dpa / Michal Kamaryt
Today Björn Borg apparently enjoys life as a tennis retiree at the side of his third wife Patricia. On the family’s Instagram channel, the two diligently post holiday pictures, and there is also a photo taken with Boris Becker in Ibiza. And the next generation of tennis is already in the starting blocks: Leo Borg, Björn and Patricia’s son, has just turned 18 – and a few weeks ago he won his very first world ranking point in Turkey.
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