Bjorn Borg v Vitas Gerulaitis: Wimbledon Semi-final 1977 (Extended Highlights) 

For sure it was one of the all time most fantastic matches ever seen at Wimbledon- a timeless classic!!

Borg’s iconic Fila tracksuit top .

Great Tennis! One of the best Tennis Matches of all Time When the Mens Semi finals were played on the Friday With No Roof! & it was always Sunny!

Borg is the most impressive tennis player I have ever seen. He was a very mysterious player because he was very silent, very calm and made no gesture of irritation or joy. His nickname was "iceborg". I felt like I was seeing some sort of “God” come to Earth. No other tennis player ever gave me such a visual impression again. Federer Nadal and Djokovic are legends, but they never achieved the aura of Borg because they remained human, while Borg gave the impression of having come from another planet, of being an alien, and when he had his beard, he looked like it was Jesus Christ playing tennis. At the age of 25 he had already won 11 Grand Slams. People today can't imagine the legendary player Borg was back then. He stopped playing tennis at just 26 years old, that’s incredible too.

Vitas is holding his second ball in his toss hand as he tosses, and he's playing the point with the second ball still in his hand. Unheard of today.

This was the greatest match I'd ever seen.

Gerulaitis was so good at the net ! i miss that serve and volley style.

Tennis have indeed come a long way in the past 45 years

No fist pumps? No grunting? No towels? I can’t watch this;)

Wow- what a player Gerulaitais was, and what a fantastic match? I remember watching this classic encounter thinking- crikey the Borg man could get knocked out here!!

This match was a changing of the guard for how winning tennis was to be played imo even more than the 85 uso or 74 Wimbledon finals. Borg had next to no business beating Vitas that day, but it was absolutely no accident nor mystery how he won Wimbledon 5 times in a row despite playing a clay court game in a s&v era- he had the grand athleticism, a solid underrated serve & great topspin that essentially made him Nadal of his era, playing wall-style tennis. Ps: this grand 5 setter caused Vitas & Borg to become life-long friends, that's how crazy of a match this was

Borg never failed at that time👍👍🏆

He was borg - it was futile to resist . One of the greatest baseline returners ever . I was in london at the time with a college buddy tried to find VG a h.s. classmate couldn't locate him met connors briefly who'd also lose to borg had scrounged an S.I photographer's pass but since there were two of us it was not enough. So I believe we watched it on tv in a pub or something. Wimbledon center court looks a little chewed and brown . Later went to Stonehenge and saw the megalithic calendar and ferried to ireland from Swansea to see friends and relations. We had the time of our life.

Back when the grass courts were slick and fast, and a slice backhand was a deadly shot. They had to slow the grass up when the oversize racquets came in because nobody could hit the serves back.

Forty five long years have passed. Why not show the whole match?

wow good quality !!!! THX !!!!!

M. Borg a écrit un joli livre sur sa vie et les vitamines y tiennent un rôle important.

Vitas was a hint of John McEnroe.. very good touch at the net 👍

che spettacolo gli anni '70 chissa' come mai i piu grandi cmpioni hanno giocato inquei mitici anni!!! borg connors gerulaitis vilas ashe nastase mcenroe ....altro che oggi ..erano battaglie infinite oggi Togli King Roger e Nadal ...vuoto assoluto.... bei tempi davvero..

Björn Borg has declared that if Vitas isnt inducted in the Tennis Hall of Fame, he will let go of his own official spot!

I do believe Gerulaitis was almost as quick as Borg was

I remember to see that match on tv but not remembering it was so disputed!

¿De qué material es la cancha?

Gerulaitis using his patented "Stan Smith autograph" racket. The irony is that Smith was still on the tour using a different racket.

looks like club players to me :)

07:30 One of those bad bounces on the Wimbledon grass and the commentator understands nothing.

resitance is futile

To me Borg remains the most charismatic player I have seen. He was a revelation. The boy with the gold hair shining as he battled under the sun at Wimbledon. His top spin was exceptional. He was fast but never struggled to get to the ball. He was very timid and would not argue points. I used to take two weeks leave from work at Wimbledon time just to watch tennis for the whole 5 yrs of his reign as champion. On the day of this match I could not be home and I listened to the the whole game on Radio as I drove to Dover and back. He is Mr Wimbledon.

I was the tall ballboy, walking across at the end. Bjorn gave me his sweat band - still have it!

The amount of pace and top spin Borg is producing in this match from a small wooden racket mind bending. The talent is off the charts.

I spent a day with both of them during an exhibition match in Columbus in 1992, I believe? They were both very gracious and easy to be around, and Bjorn to this day is still one of the nicest humans I have ever met. RIP Vitas.

I can’t get over the video quality. Really excellent footage, looks like it happened recently.

Anyone else finding it incredible that Gerulaitis was serving (and playing) with a ball in his hands (instead of in his pocket) ?

Borg is like something that we have never seen before or after. The Jesus Christ of tennis and extraterrestrial .

Borg is one of greatest or probably greatest

So many young people think the big three invented tennis. The depth of talent in the 70s and 80s was off the charts. These guys would compete nowadays with modern equipment very strongly.. so many great players from that era.

These guys just had so much "style" compared to the current game -- although I partially mean the clothes, I mostly mean the strokes, and even the approach to point-construction and just all-round demeanor. Not for these heroes the fist-pump between points, or the finger-wagging at an adverse crowd. Awesome.

no towels after each and every point.

Goat retired too soon he is superman of his era

Gerulatis would have served about 4 or 5 times, in the time it takes Nadal & Djorkovic to prepare, bounce the ball numerous times and serve!

Terrific tennis to watch , no whining or complaining about line calls, no grunting , and best of all, the commentators weren’t constantly jabbering about the obvious , as they do now !

Loved Vitas. One of the most tragic sports deaths to me.

I had forgotten how good a volleyer Vitas was. Those dipping topspin shots of Bjorn's are hard to volley solidly.

I was there. Fantastic memory!

Borg was the most badass tennis player that ever lived. Damn, he's a muthafuckin legend.

As great a tennis player, Vitas Gerulaitis was, he finished his career oh for eighteen against his friend Borg. That's about a good measure of how good Borg was.

Still love Borgs attire. I still buy Fila and Diadora to this day.

Gerulaitis had the best tennis moves possible, he seemed like a lecture about doing it properly. Without a doubt he was a great champion.

I liked Vitas' game. Also, this is the best quality of one these productions I've seen. Thanks.

I was very fortunate to see this match , three rows up from the umpires chair. My only visit to Wimbledon and I saw Conners v McEnroe in the first semi final and then this!

I watched Borg play Vitas at the NEC (Gunner Nielsen Trophy) Ex Racing Driver RIP🙏. Vitas won in 2 sets, most fed up as a Borg fan.Great game of tennis. James Hunt played and so did Jody Scheckter. ( with a massive outsized tennis racquet as I recall) , 1977/78 I think

Borg my absolute idol ever. Vitas a great player that took tennis professionally but in a different way. He loved enjoying life at the same time than tennis. That may have cost him some tournaments. Apparently a great human being, it was very sad when he died so early due to a stupid tragedy.

Borg retired too soon - heck of a good player.

Vitas was such a talented player, I caught the end of this match on TV at the time, glad someone uploaded it so I can see more all these years later!!!

Borg was incredible with those rasping, whipped with topspin, returns down the line.

Two of the quickest players ever but Borg was the ultimate counterpuncher

Le lob lifté en revers de Borg : de très loin le plus beau geste de l'histoire du tennis !

Gerulaitus was the master of chip and charge but Borg was the master of counterpunching

There is a mistake that the narrator makes at the very beginning. He states that Borg had just won the French Open. This is not true. The fact is, this Wimbledon match is dated 1977, and that year, Guillermo Vilas won the French Open.

Borg retried way too young he had another 5 years left in him playing at the top level 🎾👍😊

It’s 5 AM on a Saturday and I’m watching this. With zero regrets Borg was the best!

Just listening again to the commentary and watching this great match from the 70’s for the upteempth time, I’m now 60 I was 14 at the time. The commentator has made a mistake when he mentioned Borg had just won the French open in 77. It was actually Guillermo Vilas of Argentina(who I called the left handed Borg from Argentina) who won the French Open that year beating Brian Gottfried from the USA.

Bad luck how Vitas died in that apartment. Very bad.

It took a lot more skill back then playing with wooden rackets.

2 legendary players who dreamed a generation of tennis fans

This is when sport in general had character’s, not like today’s boring non-descript uninspiring sports people!!!!

I love that the commentators hardly say anything. So refreshing. Today commentators blab away as if the viewers are watching to hear them and not to watch the sporting event. Their blather takes so much away from the experience. Thank God for the MUTE button!

Man to play with wooden racquets and to hit like that is really amazing!! And to hit so cleanly as well just purely amazing! Vitas had an amazing second serve with a wicked slice kicker! When Borg tried to run around his backhand and the ball just swerved into his body! Nice! For a second serve! Considering the conditions these guys played in back then and how they played I gotta give those guys back then a lot of cred! Amazing!

Presenter says Borg had just won the French Open. Nope, not in 77, that was Vilas.

7:29 that serve!!! Borg just caught the ball with his hand. LOL!

Small headed wooden racquet, borg had no equal, imo the greatest of all time

Vitas was good but he didn't have that one special weapon to beat the top players. Lost him to soon .RIP

In the other semi final was a player wearing pretty much the same tennis clothes and headband as Bjorn Borg. Namely one John McEnroe.

I was in hospital at 15 having my appendix out during the 1st week at Wimbledon in 1977. I remember while in Derby hospital Ille Nastase telling the umpire to refer to him as Mr Nastase. My boarding school only gave 4 weeks summer holiday in the summer instead of 6 weeks, which meant that my summer holiday never started until mid July after wimbledon was over. But they gave me another week off to recover after the operation and so I was luck enough to see this match from home which was on a Friday as semi finals were in those days meaning I would normally have been in a class room. Great timing for me to see my very 1st semi final in full.

I wish we see this kind of sport again, instead of this athletic show of today

Bjorn Borg the Best

Era un grande tennista il povero Vitas !!!!!!! RIP

At 5.20 Dan says about Vita "A wonderfully fit active man " well he'd want to be he's playing Borg at the Wimbledon semis !!!!!

My favourite player Vitas Gerulaitis , his style sober is wonderfull !

Ah those were the days. No towels, players taking the first ball thrown to them, two bounces, serve! No team of commentators analyzing the shot from 3 angles in ultra slow motion. Just Dan Maskall whose only comment on a Borg backhand passing shot in the 5th set of a Wimbledon semi final is to chuckle to himself like Shere Khan. Perfect.

Gerulaitis play with the second ball in his hand 4:24

Les 4 premières têtes de série de ce Wimbledon 77 furent Connors,Borg,Vilas,et Tanner... Guillermo et Roscoe qui avaient disputé la finale de Melbourne,sur gazon,6 mois auparavant, furent battus par Billy Martin et John Lloyd !!!!!!

Je ne me rappelais plus que Geru jouait aussi bien

la qualitée de la video et du son sont absolument genial !!! merci de faire la même avec : 1987 QF Lendl vs. Leconte.. just saying;-)

Unbelievably boring in the Old England tradition.

Imagine how good Vitas G would have been had he not loved the partying all night. I think he was good enough to have at least 3-4 major titles

real tennis, chances for different play styles. go back to small head raquets, has not to be woods, the spin comes mostly from oversized heads in combination with this new strings.

Saw Vitas at Wimbledon-class act. Borg was great on grass. For me Jimmy was always No. 1 and if it were not for irascibility would have doubled his collection of major titles. That’s tennis i guess. I believe the guys i mentioned would adjust to the modern game because two of em were great and the third-a US open winner against Mac( another great), Vitas was near being a great for a few years. Live these matches when they rip up on youtube feeds. Hope all enjoy this fine ( hilites) footage. I know i will later when i come back from the shops-playlisted it already! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The intro is wrong. Borg had not just won the French Open - he skipped it w an injury. He won both the French Open and Wimbledon 1978-1980. He only won Wimbledon in 1976 and 1977

The serve volley specialist Vs the baseliner, always a classic...Even though Borg did as instructed by his coach, to serve and volley himself, when playing on the grass, at Wimbledon...

Was tennis more exiting back then?

Gerultis has never won against Borg, that day could have changed his career

I remember this classic so well. They look like they're barely hitting the ball by today's standards but the touch and finesse was supreme. So close, 26-25 in total games.

Is Gerulaitis playing with the tennis balls in his hand ??

at this time tennis was more fun to watch

9:55 Thats why I came for

Please post more classic Borg matches.

I'm just waiting to hear Dan Maskell to say......"Oh, I say!" xx

Vitas only weakness was lack of a BIG SHOT. He had great speed, volley text book, but no margin for error since he couldn't ou thit borg, Connors, Mac etc.

The Glimmer Twins..........or was that Jagger-Richards......oops......innit!!!!!!