The Open Era
Sweden · born Stockholm, 1956 · five times Wimbledon champion, 1976 to 1980
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5
Consecutive Wimbledon singles titles, 1976 to 1980
41
Consecutive match wins at Wimbledon
51-4
Wimbledon singles match record, 1973 to 1981
11
Major singles titles, six at Roland Garros
0
Sets dropped winning Wimbledon in 1976
Born in Stockholm in 1956, Borg won the Wimbledon junior title in 1972 and reached the men's quarter-finals at 17 the following year. He won 11 major singles titles: six at the French Open and five in a row at Wimbledon, the hardest double in the game, as Wimbledon officials called it. In the 1975 Davis Cup final against Czechoslovakia he won both his singles and the doubles as Sweden beat them 3-2. He announced his retirement in January 1983, aged 26. A comeback between 1991 and 1993 brought no match wins, and his last tour match was a defeat by Alexander Volkov at the 1993 Kremlin Cup. He entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987.
| Major singles titles | 5: Wimbledon (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 1: Wimbledon 1981 |
| Other grass singles titles | 2: Adelaide (1974); Auckland (1974) |
| Wimbledon finals | 1976 beat Ilie Năstase 6-4, 6-2, 9-7; 1977 beat Jimmy Connors 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4; 1978 beat Connors 6-2, 6-2, 6-3; 1979 beat Roscoe Tanner 6-7, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; 1980 beat John McEnroe 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6; 1981 lost to McEnroe 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 |
| Wimbledon record | 51-4 from 1973 to 1981; 41 consecutive wins, ended by McEnroe in the 1981 final; the 1976 title won without losing a set |
| Early Wimbledons | Junior champion 1972. Quarter-final 1973, seeded sixth at 17, lost to Roger Taylor in five sets; third round 1974; quarter-final 1975 |
| Finals to remember | 1980: McEnroe saved five championship points and won the fourth-set tiebreak 18-16; Borg won the fifth set 8-6 after 3 hours 53 minutes |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Men's singles | |
| 1977 | Men's singles | |
| 1978 | Men's singles | |
| 1979 | Men's singles | |
| 1980 | Men's singles | |
| New Zealand Championships | ||
| 1974 | Men's singles New Zealand Open | |
| South Australian Championships | ||
| 1974 | Men's singles | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"Borg is something new, something different from the old champions of sport."
The person behind the player.
Wimbledon 1973
At 17, a year after his junior title, Borg drew crowds of teenage girls who packed the standing areas. Bud Collins coined the word Borgasm. Organisers moved one of his doubles matches to a bigger court for fear of a stampede, and he was given full-time police protection. "It is embarrassing, and tiring," he said. "It helps to know they want me to win."
Source: Tennis AbstractWimbledon 1976 to 1981
Borg began growing his Wimbledon beard four days before the Championships. He stayed at the Holiday Inn in Swiss Cottage for four of his title years, rarely left his room ("Room service is great"), drove a Saab and took the same road over Hammersmith Bridge to the club. His coach Lennart Bergelin kept the car window up while moving, because Borg must not take the breeze.
Source: Sports IllustratedWimbledon 1981
Only one man in Stockholm, Mats Laftman, strung his racquets. Before each match he laid out ten of them in descending order of string tension, tested by the sound; his wife Mariana called it a harpsichord recital. He drank quarts of blackcurrant syrup with lemonade, which he said helped his backhand, and slept ten hours a night.
Source: Sports IllustratedCumberland Club, Hampstead
Borg skipped the warm-up tournaments and prepared at the private Cumberland Club in Hampstead, in sessions of about five hours with Bergelin. His regular partner there was Vitas Gerulaitis, who had practised with him for four straight years and had lost all 17 of their matches. Harry Hopman said the sessions gave Borg a sense of urgency.
Source: Sports IllustratedWimbledon 1980 · Final
Having lost five championship points and an 18-16 tiebreak in the fourth set, Borg went 0-30 down on his serve at the start of the fifth. He then won 19 consecutive points on serve and took the set 8-6. The match lasted 3 hours 53 minutes. Calm on court throughout, he was known as the Ice Man.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon 1981 · Final
McEnroe beat him in four sets and ended his run of 41 matches at the Championships. Borg later said the reaction surprised him more than the result: "And when I lost what shocked me was I wasn't even upset." He never played Wimbledon again, and announced his retirement 18 months later.
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