40 years passed between the last victory of his father Bjorn and the one he won on Tuesday on the professional circuit. This Wednesday, the Argentine was able to defeat him in the second round.
Bjorn Borg added his last victory in the most important tour of men’s tennis on March 28, 1983, when he defeated in two sets to Jose Luis Clerc in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters 1,000. Forty years later, a Borg celebrated again at the ATP level. Because Leo, the youngest son of the Swedish legend, got his first win on that circuit by beating his compatriot Elias Ymer in his debut at the 250 tournament in Bastad, in which he still couldn’t advance much.
It is that the young Borg, 20 years old and 437th in the world ranking, had beaten Ymer, 166th, on Tuesday, 7-6 (7-5) and 6-3. But this Wednesday he said goodbye after losing 6-4 and 6-2 against Frederick Coria113 °, in a duel that was suspended for a while due to rain at the end of the second set, when the Swede served 1-5 and 40-40.
The Rosario was not the only Argentine who won on the third day of the contest. Francisco Cerúndolo, fourth seed and defending champion, beat Frenchman Luca Van Assche 6-2, 6-3.
Leo Borg had entered the tournament thanks to a wild card. Although he did not receive the invitation because of the weight of his last name, but as a reward for the enormous evolution that he has been showing for a couple of seasons and that increased last year.
In 2022 he was the player who climbed the most places in the world ranking: 1,707. He went from 2,214 to 507th, thanks, above all, to his good performances on the ITF World Tour. In that category of tournaments (former Futures, the third in professional tennis) he played his first final in September in Cairo and won his first title, in October, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The second, meanwhile, was won a few months ago, in April, in Jakarta.
Leo was 10 years old when he decided he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Until that day, Patricia Östfeldt, Björn’s third wife, had hopes that her only child with the former tennis player would take another course.
Leo’s blond hair and two-handed backhand are reminiscent of his father. Photo EFE/EPA/Adam Ihse
“We tried to get him to do another sport so they wouldn’t compare him to his father. He was afraid,” Patricia confessed some time ago in an interview with The New York Times.
She even hoped that acting would become his passion when he was encouraged to try that streak in the movie “Borg vs. McEnroe.” There, she played the young Björn and won the role without knowing that it was a film about his father.
“In the Facebook ad we didn’t say what movie it was about. And then we got a letter from Björn Borg’s son, which his mother had helped him do, saying that he would really like to audition and that his name was Leo Borg.” Janus Metz, the film’s director, told USA Today.
But Leo had clear goals and, despite his flirtation with acting, he continued to train twice a day at the prestigious Swedish Royal Lawn Tennis Club in Stockholm.
After going through the junior circuit -he became 12th in the world and played Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the USOpen in 2022-, in 2021 he began to play at a professional level. And today, little by little, he is making his own way.
He already warned that the last name does not weigh on him or bother him. “I always knew who my father is,” he said a few years ago, making it clear that he feels no pressure to repeat the successful career of Björn, winner of 11 Grand Slams and former world number one. Although his long blonde hair and his two-handed backhand make many compare him with his father and in Sweden they are increasingly excited about a new Borg champion.
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2023-07-20 01:03:17
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