Björn Borg
(
June 6 1956,
Stockholm,
Sweden) is a former
tennis champion who was the
World No. 1 player for the years
1979 and
1980. Entering the professional ranks as somewhat of a teenage prodigy, Borg retired early after an unusually brief eight-year career. After his first season, he opted to participate in only three grand slam tournaments per year, skipping the
Australian Open in his final seven years of competition. Despite these limitations, he collected numerous records and 11
Grand Slam singles titles â€" five at
Wimbledon and a record six at the
French Open â€" leading some to consider him the greatest male tennis player of all time.
Borg quickly gained a reputation for his strong base-line game, with powerful ground-strokes and a punishing doubled-fisted backhand. His great endurance and calm court demeanor earned him the nickname of the "Ice Man" (variations include "the Ice-Borg", among others). He hit the ball hard and high from the back of the court and brought it down with considerable top-spin, making it very difficult for opponents to attack him. In many ways, Borg developed the style of play that has come to dominate the game in the decades that followed.
As a child growing up in
Södertälje, a town near Stockholm, Borg became fascinated by a tennis racquet which his father had won as a prize at a
ping pong tournament. His father gave him the racquet, beginning one of the brightest careers in tennis history.
In
1972, at the age of 15, Borg became one of the youngest players ever to represent his country in the
Davis Cup and won his debut singles rubber in five sets over seasoned pro
Onny Parun of New Zealand. Later that year, he won the Wimbledon junior singles title.
In
1974, aged 17 years and 11 months, Borg won his first top-level singles title at the
Italian Open. Two weeks later, he won his first Grand Slam title at the French Open. In the final, he came back from two sets down to defeat
Manuel Orantes in five sets 2–6, 6–7, 6–0, 6–1, 6–1. At the time, Borg was the youngest-ever male French Open champion (though the record has since been lowered by
Mats Wilander in
1982 and
Michael Chang in
1989).
Borg retained his French Open crown in
1975 when he beat
Guillermo Vilas in straight sets in the final.
1975 also saw Borg help Sweden to win its first ever Davis Cup title. He won two singles and one doubles rubber in the final as Sweden beat
Czechoslovakia 3–2. With his two singles wins in the final, Borg had put together a run of 19 consecutive wins in Davis Cup singles rubbers going back to
1973. That was already a record at the time. But Borg never lost another Davis Cup singles rubber, and, by the end of his career, he had stretched that winning streak to 33 - a Davis Cup record that still stands.
With two French Open wins and a Davis Cup under his belt, Borg set his sights on winning Wimbledon. Borg did not make much of an impact at Wimbledon prior to
1976, and many people doubted whether his strong baseline game could be adapted to be successful on Wimbledon's fast-playing grass courts. But after two weeks of solid practice in serve-and-volley tactics, Borg swept through Wimbledon in 1976 without losing a set, defeating the much-favoured
Ilie Năstase in straight sets in the final. Borg became the youngest male Wimbledon champion of the modern era at 20 years and 1 month (a record later broken by
Boris Becker who won Wimbledon aged 17 in
1985). Borg also reached the final of the 1976
US Open, where he lost to
Jimmy Connors. Some speculate that Borg surviving the first week of Wimbledon, when the courts were slick and fast, was the key to his success. This might have been due to the unusually hot conditions that summer. The courts played slower in the second week which suited Borg's baseline game.
Borg repeated his Wimbledon triumph in
1977, although this time he was pushed much harder. He won a thrilling five-set victory over
Vitas Gerulaitis in the semi-finals 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 [
1]. In the final, he was also pushed to five sets by Connors.
The end of the
1970s and the start of the
1980s saw Borg at the height of his powers. He won both the French Open and Wimbledon for three years running in
1978,
1979 and
1980. He also won the season-ending
Masters title in 1979 and 1980. Borg was also runner-up at the US Open in 1978 (lost to Connors) and 1980 (lost to McEnroe).
Borg's fifth consecutive Wimbledon title was won in an all-time great final in 1980 against the new up-and-coming star of men's tennis
John McEnroe. In a 34-point fourth-set tie-breaker, Borg saved six set-points and McEnroe saved five match-points before McEnroe finally won the tie-break 18-16. In the end, Borg's renowned mental toughness prevailed in the decisive fifth set, which he won 8-6.
Borg won what turned out to be his final Grand Slam title at the French Open in
1981. In the final, he beat another of tennis' up-and-coming stars,
Ivan Lendl, in five sets. Borg's six French Open titles remains a record for a male player.
In making the final at Wimbledon in 1981, Borg stretched his winning streak at the All England Club to a record 41 matches. But it finally came to an end in the 1981 final, where McEnroe beat him in four sets.
Borg's last Grand Slam final was a four-set defeat to McEnroe at the 1981 US Open. The US Open was undoubtedly Borg's "bogey tournament." He reached the final four times but never won. (Borg chose to make the journey to the
Australian Open only once, in 1974, where he lost in the third round. Borg has stated publicly that he would have attempted to complete the calendar year Grand Slam and played in the Australian Open had he succeeded in winning the first three Grand Slam tournaments of the year, which he never did.)
The spark seemed to have burned out of Borg's game by the end of 1981, and he was on the brink of burn-out. But Borg's announcement in
1982 that he was retiring from the game at the age of just 26 was a shock to the tennis world.
After retiring, Borg suffered a
drug overdose, was rumoured to have attempted
suicide and had a turbulent relationship with his then-wife, the Italian singer
Loredana Bertè. He later bounced back as the owner of the Björn Borg fashion label, whose most noted advertising campaigns asked Swedes (from the pages of a leading national newspaper) to "Fuck for the Future."
In the early-
1990s (possibly pushed by financial difficulties with his fashion label, which was not doing very well at the time), Borg attempted a comeback on the men's professional tennis tour. However this time around he was completely unsuccessful. Playing with his old wooden rackets in an attempt to regain his once-indomitable touch, he lost his first comeback match in
1991 to
Jordi Arrese at the
Monte Carlo Open. A series of first-round losses to lowly-ranked players followed over the next two years. The closest he came to winning a match was in
1993 in
Moscow, when he pushed
Alexander Volkov to three sets and lost a final-set tie-breaker 9–7. After that match, he retired from the tour for good and confined himself to playing on the senior tour, with modern rackets, where he has delighted crowds by renewing his old rivalries with McEnroe and Connors.
Borg was ranked the World No. 1 in six different stretches between 1977 and 1981, totaling 109 weeks. During his career, he won a total of 61 top-level singles and 4 doubles titles.
Borg also won the
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 1979.
In his 1979 autobiography
Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Borg in his list of the 21 greatest players of all time.
[Writing in 1979, Kramer considered the best player ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best.] Financial difficulties continue to trouble Borg. On 3 March 2006, Bonhams Auction House in
London announced that it would auction Borg's Wimbledon trophies and two of his winning rackets on 21 June 2006.[
2]After the announcement several players called Borg wondering what he was thinking, but only one was able to make Borg rethink,
John McEnroe. According to [
3]
Dagens Nyheter - who had talked to Borg - McEnroe called from New York and asked, "What's up? Have you gone mad?" Borg said that made him call
Bonhams to buy out the trophies. He had to pay to abort the auction, but would not disclose how much.
Borg was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame in
Newport, Rhode Island in
1987.
Wins (11)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1974 | French Open | Manuel Orantes | 2-6, 6-7, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 |
| 1975 | French Open (2)| Guillermo Vilas | 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 | | 1976 | Wimbledon | Ilie Năstase | 6-4, 6-2, 9-7 | | 1977 | Wimbledon (2)| Jimmy Connors | 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 | | 1978 | French Open (3)| Guillermo Vilas | 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 | | 1978 | Wimbledon (3)| Jimmy Connors | 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 | | 1979 | French Open (4)| Victor Pecci | 6-3, 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 | | 1979 | Wimbledon (4)| Roscoe Tanner | 6-7, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 | | 1980 | French Open (5)| Vitas Gerulaitis | 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 | | 1980 | Wimbledon (5)| John McEnroe | 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6 | | 1981 | French Open (6)| Ivan Lendl | 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 | | | | | | | | | |
Runner-ups (5)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1976 | US Open | Jimmy Connors | 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 |
| 1978 | U.S. Open | Jimmy Connors | 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 |
| 1980 | U.S. Open | John McEnroe | 7-6, 6-1, 6-7, 5-7, 6-4 |
| 1981 | Wimbledon | John McEnroe | 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 |
| 1981 | U.S. Open | John McEnroe | 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 |
* 1974 - Adelaide, Bastad, Boston, London WCT,
French Open,
Rome, Sao Paulo WCT
* 1975 - Barcelona, Bologna WCT, Boston, Richmond-WCT,
French Open* 1976 - Boston, Dallas WCT, Dusseldorf, Sao Paulo WCT, Toronto Indoor WCT,
Wimbledon* 1977 - Barcelona, Basel, Cologne, Denver, Madrid, Memphis,
Monte Carlo WCT, Nice, Pepsi Grand Slam, Wembley,
Wimbledon*
1978 - Bastad, Birmingham WCT, Las Vegas, Milan WCT, Pepsi Grand Slam,
French Open,
Rome, Tokyo Indoor,
Wimbledon*
1979 - Bastad, Las Vegas,
Masters,
Monte Carlo,
Montreal / Toronto, Palermo, Pepsi Grand Slam, Richmond WCT,
French Open, Rotterdam, Tokyo Indoor,
Wimbledon*
1980 - Las Vegas,
Masters,
Monte Carlo, Nice, Pepsi Grand Slam,
French Open, Stockholm,
Wimbledon* 1981 - Geneva,
French Open, Stuttgart Outdoor
Grand Slam and Masters singles tournament timeline
| Tournament | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | Career |
|---|
| Australian Open>align="center"|DNP | 3R | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | DNP | 0 |
| French Open>align="center" style="background:yellow;"|4R | W | W | QF | DNP | W | W | W | W | 6 |
| Wimbledon>align="center" style="background:yellow;"|QF | 3R | QF | W | W | W | W | W | F | 5 |
| US Open>align="center" style="background:yellow;"|4R | QF | SF | F | 4R | F | QF | F | F | 0 |
| The Masters>align="center"|DNP | RR | F | DNP | F | F | W | W | DNP | 2 |
Grand Slam records
* Won more Grand Slam singles titles in the open era (11) than any player until
Pete Sampras (14). This despite competing in the Australian Open only once, at the age of 17, and retiring after only eight years of professional play. By comparison, in his first eight years, Sampras won only eight Grand Slam singles titles.
* Won more French singles titles (6) than any other male player in tennis history.
* Won more Wimbledon singles titles (5) than any other male player until
Pete Sampras (7)
* Won four consecutive French singles championships, an all-time record. He retired while on a winning streak of 28 consecutive matches.
* Won more consecutive Wimbledon singles titles (5) than any man in the modern era. Only
Willie Renshaw won more consecutive titles there (1881–86)— and in Renshaw's day, the defending champion played only one match, the Challenge Round. After the adoption of the present-day rules,
Fred Perry established a record of three consecutive Wimbledons in 1932-34, until Borg equalled it in 1978. Borg's streak of 41 consecutive match wins at Wimbledon remains an all-time record. Sampras came closest to this record with four consecutive Wimbledons in 1997-2000 (and 31 consecutive match wins).
* Played in six consecutive Wimbledon singles finals, still a record since the abolition of the Challenge Round in 1922.
* Played in four consecutive French Open singles finals, an open era record.
* Played in 16 Grand Slam singles finals, a record for the open era (and second in tennis history only to 17 by
Rod Laver) until
Ivan Lendl played in 19 (and Sampras in 18).
* Won at least one Grand Slam singles title for eight consecutive years (1974–1981), an all-time men's record. Only Sampras has matched this (1993–2000).
* Defeated more players (9) in Grand Slam singles finals than any male player in history. Sampras tied this mark.
* Won 11 Grand Slam singles titles out of 27 tournaments played, giving him a male record 41% winning percentage for the open era. (Margaret Court won 24 of the 47 Grand Slam singles tournaments she played during her career (51%), which spanned both the amateur and open eras. Considering just Court's performances during the open era, she won 11 of 21 Grand Slam singles events (52%). Steffi Graf won 22 of the 54 Grand Slam singles tournaments she played during her career, which was entirely during the open era, matching Borg's winning percentage exactly.)
* In Grand Slam singles tournaments, his match record is 141–16, giving him an 89.8 winning percentage, better than any male player ever. The only other male players in the open era with winning percentages over 80 are
Jimmy Connors (81.9) and Ivan Lendl (81.8).
* His 11 Grand Slam singles titles puts him fourth on the all-time list, tied with Laver, and behind Sampras (14) and
Roy Emerson (12).
Youngest to win
* In 1972 he became the youngest-ever winner of a Davis Cup match, at age 15.
* In 1974, one month before his 18th birthday, he became the youngest winner of the Italian Open up to that time.
* In 1974, only days after his 18th birthday, he became the youngest man ever to hold a Grand Slam title. He retained that distinction until another Swede,
Mats Wilander, took the French Open in 1982.
* At 18, he was the youngest winner of the U.S. Professional Championships until
Aaron Krickstein won in 1983.
* In 1976 at age 20, Borg became the youngest winner of the open era at Wimbledon until
Boris Becker became the youngest Grand Slam winner of all time by taking Wimbledon at age 17 in 1985.
* Won his 11th Grand Slam singles title in 1981 at age 25, the youngest to that number of titles. By comparison, Sampras won his 11th at almost 27, Emerson at 30, Laver at 31.
Match competition
* Compiled 576-124 singles record, winning more than 82% of the matches he played. By comparison, Sampras had a 77% winning percentage at retirement.
* Won 14 consecutive five-set singles matches before losing to
John McEnroe at the 1980 U.S. Open, a record for the open era (and possibly for tennis history).
* In career five-set matches, he was 24-4, his winning percentage of 85.7% unrivalled in the open era, with Aaron Krickstein in second place at 75.7% (or 28-9). Five of Borg's wins were in Grand Slam finals -- a mark that surpassed
Bill Tilden (who won four) and has remained unequalled.
* In 1980 he won the longest-ever Wimbledon singles final up to that time, 3 hours and 53 minutes (the record stood until 1982). That year he also lost the longest-ever U.S. Championships final up to that time, 4 hours and 13 minutes (a mark broken in 1988).
* Won the longest tiebreak of the open era, 20-18 in the third set of his first round match at the 1973 Wimbledon -- a mark that has been tied three times (by Federer,
Goran Ivanišević, and
José Acasuso) but not broken.
* Won 19 consecutive points on serve in the fifth set on two occasions, his 1980 Wimbledon final against
John McEnroe and his 1980 U.S. Open quarterfinal against
Roscoe Tanner.
Career winning streaks
* On the list of open era winning streaks, Borg is both first (49 tour matches won in 1978) and fifth (40 in 1979–80). The only other men with winning streaks of 40+ matches are
Guillermo Vilas (46), Ivan Lendl (44), and McEnroe (42).
* Previously held the record for most consecutive wins on grass, with 41 victories (all at Wimbledon).
Roger Federer, who plays a lesser grass
tournament in Halle in addition to Wimbledon, has a 48 match winning streak currently on grass (2003–present).
* Holds the Davis Cup record singles winning streak at 33 consecutive victories — a streak broken only by retirement.
* Holds third place for most consecutive wins on clay, with 46 victories in 1977-79. Only
Rafael Nadal with 60 and Vilas with 53 hold more.
Miscellaneous
* Captured 62 titles over his brief career, tying him with Vilas for fifth on the all time list of players with most career titles behind Connors (109), Lendl (94), McEnroe (77), and Sampras (64).
* Retired with $3.6 million in career prize money, a record at the time.
* Was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987 at only 30 years of age.
* Finally, in 1999 Borg was elected the best Swedish sportsman ever by a jury in his home country. His tennis rivals included a pair of world #1's: Wilander (who won 7 Grand Slam titles) and
Stefan Edberg (who won 6).
*
List of Swedes in sports*
Official ATP profile*
International Tennis Hall of Fame profile*
Official Wimbledon website profile*
BBC profile*
Davis Cup record*
Björn Borg fan club*
Björn Borg fashion company
