5 Most Memorable Slam Finals Of The Open Era

#2 Wimbledon 1980 (Bjorn Borg vs John McEnroe)

(When Fire Met Ice)

Overview:

Time Duration: 3 hrs 53 minutes

Total Points: 376

Total games played: 54

Total Aces: 40

Total Winners: 132

Final Scoreline

Borg def McEnroe: 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(16-18), 8-6

Background:

Bjorn Borg was the undisputed king of tennis having won 9 majors already by 1980. And then a challenger came from a young McEnroe. The 1980 Wimbledon was set for the ultimate battle between the baseline Borg vs the net rusher McEnroe, between the gentleman of tennis Borg vs the bad boy McEnroe. Without disappointing, both of them reached the final overcoming a few tough matches on their way.

Match:

The first set started with McEnroe dominating play with his big serves and volley skills winning it easily by 6-1. But as always, Borg fought back and both players held their serves up to the 11th game. In the 12th game, McEnroe was serving to stay in the set but as always Borg improved his level of play at the crucial time to break and took the set. Borg broke early on the third set to take the 2-1 lead in the match.

The fourth set witnessed an epic struggle between the two for the match. Borg was serving for the Championship and had two consecutive match points but the American refused to give up and broke back at the crucial time to go into a tiebreak.

Then began the most memorable tiebreak in the history of the game. The hustle started with usual holding on to serves from both sides. And then at 5-5 Borg got his third championship point on McEnroe's serve, then again on his own serve, failing to convert both of them. Borg created three more championship points without any success of conversion.

McEnroe got to few set points missing on all of those until finally he won the epic tiebreak by 18-16. The fifth set was again equally competitive as both holding their serves until finally on the 14th game McEnroe finally broke down and lost the set by 6-8 and the championship as well. "Long live the king" was the scream from the commentator at the end of this epic battle.