Past & Present Champions Series – Bjorn Borg

Bjorn Borg

Past & Present Champions Series – Bjorn Borg

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Bjorn Borg

If you’re a fan of tennis you most likely have one or two favorite players from the past and present. I owe my interest in tennis to one such player, Bjorn Borg. I never played tennis as a boy because there were no tennis courts within miles of my home and as a result, the sport was never encouraged in local schools. So, in 1976, I caught the tennis bug when I started watching breakfast at Wimbledon and from that point forward the rest, as they say, is history.

Watching Borg play was a real treat. I was captivated by the calm, cool, and collective way he went about his business on the tennis court. He kept his emotions contained and hit ball after ball like a pre-programmed robot with an insane ability to place the ball anywhere on the court he chose. He won 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles and at the time, many said that record would never be broken. Of course, that was Prior to Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, two players that raised the bar even higher when it came to Wimbledon titles. So, to that end, I’ve decided to share some history on, IMHO, one of the greatest players to ever play the game.

Beginnings

Borg was born about 10 miles from Stockholm in Södertäjle Sweden in 1956. His father gave him his first tennis racquet at the age of 9, a racquet that he had won in a local table tennis tournament. The next day Borg went to a local tennis club where some of his friends played hoping to get a game. Unfortunately for Borg, each time he visited the club the courts were always filled and as a result, he turned to the garage door in the back of his home. It’s said that he spent 3-4 hours per day just hitting against the door which may explain his uncanny ability to successfully hit ball after ball.

What was early training like for Bjorn Borg?

Borg had no technical training in his first 3 years of playing and he credits his unorthodox strokes to the lack of proper coaching early on. However, at around age 12, the Swedish Tennis Federation helped him with travel expenses and eventually arranged for him to compete abroad. His introduction to eventual coach Lenart Bergelin came in 1970 when Bergelin was asked to put together a team for the Davis cup. Borg was only 13 at the time but due to Bergelin’s persistence in taking younger Swedish players abroad for competitive play, he was included on the team. Borg

Was Borg a well-behaved player?

I always found it fascinating the way Borg was viewed as he matured as a player. Stone-cold and the iceman were two phrases often thrown about but in fact, it wasn’t always that way. According to Borg himself, his first two years at his tennis club he was anything but well behaved, and in fact, he admits to being one of the worst behaved players there. He threw his racquet and swore on the court when he was losing and it became so bad that the club suspended him for two months. They told him that “anyone who behaves like you has no business to be on a tennis court”. Think about that for a minute and then think about some of the things we’ve seen over the years. For Borg, a two-month suspension from playing the game he loved so dearly seemed to be all that was needed to straighten him out. I can’t help but wonder if stricter rules were enforced back in Borg’s day and then continued on to current times what the tennis world would be like.

An impressive list of titles

From junior competition to his transition to the pros, Borg was showing everyone he was one of the most promising players to come along in a very long time. Here’s a look at Borg’s titles from 1971-1981:

Bjorn Borg backhand
Bjorn Borg

Most tennis enthusiasts will cite Borg’s victory over John McEnroe at Wimbledon in the 1980 final as one of the greatest matches ever played. Without a doubt, it was certainly one of the most memorable tie-breaks in tennis history. Borg was going for his 5th consecutive Wimbledon crown and it took him 5 sets to put away McEnroe. The match lasted 3 hours and 53 minutes with Borg winning 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(16-18), 8-6. The 4th set tie-break still ranks high on the list as one of the greatest tie-breaks ever played. McEnroe had to save 7 championship points to eventually win that tie-break 18-16 and force it to a deciding 5th set. Borg won a total of 66 titles including 11 Grand Slams. He retired from competitive play in 1984 and mounted a brief but unsuccessful comeback in 1993.

Below are some of the photos I took of the exhibition match between Borg & Connors in Richmond Virginia in 1982.

 

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Executive Director, IART

Comments (10)

  • Matt Steverson December 29, 2021

    I had the privilege of seeing Borg play in person 3 times, one of them being an exhibition match against Rod Laver. He was the fastest person I’d ever seen on a tennis court.

    • Tim Strawn December 30, 2021

      Matt, I only got to see him once. He played an exhibition against Connors in Richmond. I’ve got some Kodak snapshots if that tells you how long ago that was. I’ll see if I can dig them up and add them to this post

    • Tim Strawn December 31, 2021

      I found the photos Matt and I added them to the post. They’re the quality you might expect from 40 years ago with a Kodak snapshot camera. Jimmy Connors beat Bjorn Borg 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in that match but considering Borg was nearly a year removed from competitive tennis, I’d say he did pretty well wouldn’t you?

  • Steve Huff December 30, 2021

    Borg was my favorite all-time player. Only Laver comes close. I still think Borg was the best clay court player of all time, with Nadal 2nd, Vilas 3rd and maybe Muster 4th. Computer analysis shows that Borg was faster and quicker to the ball than Nadal. Granted, Nadal hits with so much topspin, but what if Borg would have played with that racket. We’ll, unfortunately, never know. I read a great story by a contributing editor to a tennis magazine once. The author (cannot remember his name) had qualified for the French Open. His 1st match was Borg. He said, “I trained well, I was moving great, and I knew of Borg’s reputation, so I prepared myself to stay out there all day if I had to. Unfortunately, Bjorn was prepared to stay out there until next Thursday”. A great player, great sportsman. If more tennis players had acted like him, tennis may have been a better game.

    • Tim Strawn December 30, 2021

      Interesting you would mention the difference in racquets Steve. Remember his comeback attempt in 1993 where he was still trying to compete with a wooden frame? He caught a lot of flack for that and I think rightly so. Had he embraced newer racquet technology who knows what difference that would have made? He was, as you mention, truly remarkable on clay. I want a match between 1976 Borg and 2010 Nadal. Who’s your pick for that one?

      • Matt Steverson December 30, 2021

        Tim, that would be quite the match! Almost have to pick Borg to out-steady Rafa.

  • Albert Murata December 31, 2021

    Great read Tim! I heard somewhere that Borg developed his two-handed backhand from playing ice hockey when he was young. Do you know if that’s true?

    • Tim Strawn December 31, 2021

      Albert, I don’t know if ice hockey was the foundation for his backhand but I do know that he played ice hockey and football when he was 9 years old. That was also when he started playing tennis.

      • Albert Murata December 31, 2021

        Nice to see you added some pictures. Those are pretty good Kodak snapshots . . . you must have had great seats!

        • Tim Strawn December 31, 2021

          I ordered my tickets by phone the day they went on sale. I had to wait a little while but I finally got through and just asked them to give me the best seat they had left – yeah the seat was pretty nice.

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