Long live the old King of Roland Garros: A tribute to Bjorn Borg

“What’s up, have you gone mad?”

We get such a question casually hurled at us almost every day. Nine times out of ten, neither the speaker nor the receiver takes the meaning of the statement seriously. John McEnroe, on the other hand, was perfectly solemn when he called Bjorn Borg up six years back. The American, who had spent his entire life with a maddening temper, continued the phone call with solid determination and purpose. In the end, Bjorn Borg was left with the silence of a finished conversation and his five Wimbledon trophies back in his house. Borg, who had planned to auction them away, saw reason only after tennis royalty including the likes of Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors begged him not to sell them.

Why would two generations of the best players tennis has ever seen rise up to protect the silverware of an athlete? The answer lies in trying to understand what causes the feeling of being protective about someone. Bjorn Borg was a rockstar. He was to Andre Agassi what Black Sabbath was to Iron Maiden. He was the one man who everyone adored and who was impossible to hate. Looks, game, physique – Borg sported them like a mannequin in a Gucci store. More than anything else, he was a huge influence on how the game would eventually change. Tennis owed him for both, giving the sport an extra million fans as well as an impact on style that would stay till date.

Borg was introduced to tennis by his father. He was fascinated by the game after his father won a golden tennis racket in a table tennis tournament. He entered the professional circuit when he was just fourteen, and earned himself a position in the Swedish David Cup team in the next couple of years. Borg’s style of play was in many ways extremely unorthodox for his time. His figure was bulky, and he had an immensely powerful core. This not only gave him extreme athletic prowess on court, but also allowed him to hit the ball with an extreme amount of top spin. Along with Jimmy Connors, he was instrumental in developing the defensive baseline style of play, which was later perfected by the likes of Andre Agassi and most recently, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Rumours about Borg’s low heart rate, which was fabled to hit 40 at the peak of play, have never been validated, but the nickname that those rumours gave rise to – ‘Iceberg’ – lived up to his game. A true gentlemen surrounded by bad boys, Borg was unflappable at both, his best and his worst. In many ways, he combined the mental sternness of Federer with the physical brutality of Nadal. His double handed backhand was a perfect foil for the single handed backhands of his age.

Borg was the perfect dose of calm in an age where his contemporaries from America received as many court violations as titles. While both Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe weren’t exactly silent about their off-court dislike for each other’s faces, Bjorn Borg was respectfully adored by both. There’s a famous incident where McEnroe was playing Borg in a tournament where he started one of his tirades about a line call that he didn’t agree with. Borg was silently standing at the back of the court, observing the drama with a steely eye. At one point, McEnroe looked over at Borg who simply shook his head, indicating the ball was long. McEnroe started play at once. In another incident, McEnroe double faulted on purpose when Borg was awarded a bad line call.

Bjorn Borg of Sweden (left) and John McEnroe of the USA prior to the Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon on 4th July 1981.

All in all, Borg collected 11 Grand Slam titles. Unlike most other tennis greats, Borg was probably the only one to never see success on hard courts. He won at Roland Garros a record six times, a feat bettered by Nadal only last year. His other five majors came at the All England Club. The RG-Wimbledon double, which is regarded to be the toughest double in tennis, has been replicated by only Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer ever since. Borg achieved this thrice, from 1978-1980.

No article about the Iceberg can be completed without an honorary mention of the 1980 Wimbledon singles final, which remains one of the best matches ever to have been played, comparable only to the Federer-Nadal classic 28 years later. In a match that saw the word ‘drama’ raised to unbelievable heights, Borg had championship points at 5-4, which McEnroe wrestled away. The tiebreaker that followe, known in today’s tennis world as ‘THE tiebreaker’, was built with 34 points of seat-breaking madness. McEnroe proceeded to win the break, but not the match.

Today, Mr. Borg has seen it all. His retirement, failed comeback, attempted sleeping pill suicide and bankruptcy are all a part of his legend. His namesake clothing brand is second to only Calvin Klein in Sweden. Today, at 56, he has earned his right to sit and rest in peace as ex-tennis royalty. We wish him a happy birthday and a wonderful life ahead.