I remember watching this final and desperately wanting McEnroe to win. Hard to believe it was over 40 years ago now and Borg, McEnroe and me are all now in our sixties. Time flies so quickly.
@@ba177ba18 Lol. Mine was more like Borg's but not quite as long. I also wore a headband when I was playing football for my town football club at the time to keep it out of my eyes. What we have in common now is that our hair is grey and we have less of it.
Yup, I watched this one too. Still remember Bud Collins classic quote: Thou shalt not second serve Borg. I wanted Borg to win and was glad he did, but John got him the next year. One has to wonder just how many Borg would have won had he not retired at 26. Remember, this guy only lost twice at the French open and to the same person: Panetta.
Borgs shows a lot of heart to, they both kind of unsure of who their opponent is, and what the game gonna be like. They read eachother! They exchange good things meanwhile to.. inspiration from both sides, it doesn't take long time before they are not unsure no more it's interesting analyzing and enjoy watching the Tennis Game!
One of the greatest matches ever. I'll date myself - but I remember dragging myself out of bed at 7am on a Sunday morning to watch it live in 1980. Can't believe it's been 40 years...
@@MultiStar83 Borg v McEnroe in 1981 was the last men's final played on a Saturday; they have all been Sunday since then. Smith v Nastase (1972) was played on Sunday because it rained all day the day before.
These two were actually pretty good friends off court. McEnroe said that Borg's retirement really threw him mentally for quite a while afterwards. Suddenly, the person he'd been chasing to replace as number one was suddenly gone. He'd lost his target. Maybe it goes some way to explaining McEnroe's dip in form in 1982.
This was the very first tennis match I ever watched. I remember mum was entertaining friends and family downstairs at the time. Fell in love with tennis and have enjoyed it ever since. 42 yrs lol. Can scarcely believe how much time has passed.
I came to watch this right after seeing the Borg vs McEnroe film, which I'd previously ignored. It's a cracking film, great job. But with material like that match... wow.
Well, it seems Wimbledon has ceased posting these classic matches. At least they posted this one, which was the best of the best. I’ll just keep watching it over & over.
For those who were not around and who thought the game was slow, remember that these two were the best players of their time who lugged around heavy wooden racquets. Borg was probably the greatest baseliner of the wooden era and McEnroe was more gifted than any previous player, Laver included, as far as serving and volleying. This was an epic match. Serve and volleyers were more successful at that time and only a few baseliners really had much success in the wooden era. Everyone was rushing to the net - men and women. Evert and Borg were exceptions to the rule. With today's modern racquets and slower courts, baseliners rule.
The match was entertaining but a few days ago I watched a match between Vilas and Wilander playing in Roland Garros and it was awful. Looks like nobody wanted to win. Like watching a video at 0.5 speed.
Amazing how McEnroe usually very volatile is very calm and respectful ( despite all the noise (against him) from the crowd ) like he was trying to do just like Borg...
Start of 1st set: 00:00:20 Start of 2nd set: 00:28:44 Start of 3rd set: 01:17:23 Start of 4th set: 01:57:00 Start of 4th set tiebreak: 02:40:50 Start of 5th set: 03:04:53 Championship point no.8: 03:51:09 Incredible match! Missing the first game of the third set though. Is it lost?
Cheersi can barely see the ball in colour i actually saw this live( and the BALL) on a black and white tv when we supposed to be outside..but its was superhot so I watched this match and its the reason I love the game today. So scrappy is John from Queens and so calm and serene and tall amd beautiful is Bjorn! I was a true fan of both SCTV did a HILARIOUS spoof of McEnroe it became a part of his legend! Wish Borg had stayed around longer. Now guys like Novak do the metal thing like Borg. But they stay near net too like McEnroe.
In the US in that era, we had Bud Collins. He could never shut up. One time they said that for fun, they’d change the audio over to the British commentary so we could see what it was like. Blissful silence! Bud didn’t get the message, sadly. I guess the network paid him by the word. 😜
it's almost a different game from the top play today , due to massive improvements in racquets and overall strength and conditioning but in many ways this is a more enjoyable style of play to watch.
Roscoe Tanner and Jimmy Connors were the big servers in this era. I think Tanner held the record for the fastest serve for years. The big serve game was just a few year away and I remember some complaining as far back as the early 90s that tennis players, especially men, were relying on the big first serve and the game becoming more about power than touch and finesse
There was a tiny little window during which professional tennis was just absolutely un-missable even to the lay-sports-fan. Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Everett, Navratilova. I hung on every shot at Wimbledon, every summer during that period. Then one year the men's final was ... could it have been Lendl against Anders Jared? And I thought, "What the hell am I watching?" and I've never been back. And yes, I know I missed a lot of great tennis, but still -- nothing like those halcyon days in the late 70s and early 80s.
I remember having seen this in 2008 on TV. My father, who is a big tennis fan, explained to me the whole back story and the way the players played and how legendary this match. A short while after this I saw Federer vs Nadal at Wimbledon 2008 where Nadal won for the first time. So I never got see Borg vs McEnroe but I did get to see Roger vs Rafa. Both my father and I have awesome memories belonging to our respective generations
I remember watching Borg's match on cassette tapes in my elementary school classmate's place. I am in my 50s now. What hasn't changed is I still watch tennis!
I was 14 when i watched this..i have seen Game 7's, Superbowl's, World Series, Snake Stabler, Miracle on ice...that 22min in that tiebreaker was the most gut-wrenching, heartstopping, suspense filled period of my life!!!!
I don’t think this match has ever looked better! 50 fps really gives a nicely flowing feel to everything, and the previously rather dull colours have been enhanced well. The only thing that’s off is the sound, which appears to be out of phase. Still a joy to watch now!
truly one of the greatest mens finals of all time i never saw it live back in the day .but i never ever tire of seeing it in replay avery emotional time. & then they met again one year later
This was agonisingly tense, watching on TV as a boy in 1980. Willing Borg to win but McEnroe refusing to be beaten. Not sure I’m up to the full 4 hours again! One of the most intense finals ever.
@@warcraftlake7 No, Borg just got tired of the rigmarole of tennis and the traveling and not having a life of his own was the main factor and Mc was devastated when he retired young.
Damn, I've actually never seen these two play in their youth, I've just seen them in their 60s. Incredible!! The fashion, the hair! Bjorn was quite the looker too
I saw both Nadal-Federer 2007 and this Borg-MacEnroe... It is very hard to decide, but the Borg-McEnroe has something for it that the Nadal-Federer has not : the birth... of tennis. Borg-MacEnroe 1980 is the real birth of tennis.... and we can not be born twice. Before Wimbledon 1980, tennis was in the belly of its mother.
Borg was the coolest...I wish he hadn’t retired so young. He’s the Barry Sanders of tennis. I never got the chance to watch him play, I was too young. My favorite player growing up was Boris Becker.
Absolutely. I started playing in the graphite era but remember trying a wooden racket and it was almost impossible. So small, heavy, and the sweet spot was as big as the ball itself.
These blokes were playing with tiny wooden Dunlops. Before the days of big headed graphite rackets. The skill.must have been amazing. Ex county tennis player here, nothing flash bit that must have been so hard. Love these Borg/Mc duals. Remember watching them as a kid. Half the Brits loved Bjorg, the other Mc.
Avevo 10 anni. Ricordo di aver visto questa trepidante partita nel salotto di casa. Era un sabato pomeriggio estivo. Tifavo per Borg. Quante emozioni e quanti ricordi ritrovare queste immagini. La vita vola.
With the tactic from 1980 (service volley even on the 2nd serve) they would get murdered with todays quality on tour. Crazy to see how much the game has changed.
They wouldn’t get murdered if they both played with wooden rackets. It was impossible to hit the ball as hard as they do today with rackets that were a third smaller (therefore a much smaller sweet spot) and made of wood. It was racket technology that changed the game and spelt the end of serve and volley
The 1980 Borg/MacEnroe Wimbledon men's final was my first introduction into tennis. It's when I first started to play and I want to play tennis like them.
This game is a historical representation of how the game of tennis has changed over the years: racket technology, ball type, court surfaces slowed, which led to players getting into longer rallies from the baseline, thus fewer serve and volleys at the net.
I watched this match last night and once it finished, i realised how late it was, 1:09 in the morning! which means that i started watching it at 10:00. Who knew?! Great match as well!!! :)
@PatrickKelly...Bjorn was the 1st "Rock Star" of tennis 🙂 before he came along everyone was a bit staid & gentlemanly...then he came along with his long flowing Blond Hair & headband..it was like wow who's this! I was suddenly interested in tennis 🙂
Une finale inoubliable. J'avais 15 ans, et ces 2 gars nous ont vraiment fait rêver. On s'est tous achetés leurs polos, leur basket, et j'ai eu la Donnay Borg, injouable d'ailleurs à part pour lui...des genies !!!!!!
lol the ‘rawness’ of the 1970/80s is showing at the beginning of the video. so weird hearing the umpire speak pretty informally as opposed to now, where they are trained to say a particular thing to shut the crowd up
11 Grand Slam titles by the age of 25 and Borg only played Australia once!! If he'd played there all those years and extended his career a bit longer, I've no doubt he'd have more GS titles than Federer today. Unfair to use majors as a measure of greatness when Australia wasn't even considered one back then.
This is interesting, because if we talk about great players who failed to win one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, they keep saying Borg only missed to win the US Open and McEnroe only did not win the French Open. But both of them also never won the Australian Open...
@@MultiStar83 That's because the AO wasn't considered a Slam back then and no one went. Borg, Connors, Vilas, Nastase, Ashe, Smith, Kodes, Tanner, and Gerulaitis only showed up once or twice and McEnroe had to be paid to go.
Such beautiful tennis played in that era, mostly brought about by a huge contrast in styles. Each style, Borg and McEnroe, perfectly thwarted the other. It's no wonder that their all time record against each other was 11-11. I'm so glad that I grew up in that era of the best tennis ever played.
Yes. Athletes at this level must be able to do such things. Connors was also able to do this, though to a lesser degree, after being completely humiliated at Wimbledon in 1984 against McEnroe.
Great match, great coverage. No replays after every point. No analysis of every shot. Just let the match speak for itself. The fact that they had the players supporters/family in the same box is quite strange, don't recall seeing that before. Maybe it was normal back then. This took place a couple years before I watched tennis (born in '71) I remember watching Wimbledon first on HBO a couple years after this. It is awesome to be able to watch this now.
That speaks volumes…the tension and energy is with the players’ reactions and composure after each point, the modern replay robs the audience of that space.
I woke up to "Breakfast At Wimbledon," the broadcast that proved 24-hour sports were viable. Such an amazing match. I was thirteen and glad to see someone finally challenge "The Borg."
People have probably forgotten this BUT this is when Wimbledon still had the "Standing Room Only" section and the General Public waited in LONG lines to get into the Finals. It made Centre Court louder for sure. Imagine standing for a 4-5 hour match (and not leaving the entire time...for fear of losing your spot).
Tennis 🎾 has improved dramatically… despite this showcasing the best of the best in the 1980s , today’s Alcaraz and Sinner would literally crush them. I have been watching and playing tennis for nearly 42 years and am grateful for this wonderful video . Thanks 🙏 SF.
I'm a fan of these two world's greatest player Borg-McEnroe. I miss watching how they play in tennis court. I wonder how I could be as good as them oneday.
Great memories for me growing up back in those days.. These two men for me are true greats.. And because I was a young teenager at this time I also must draw attention to the Fila and Sergio Tacchini gear they wore was superb!!
Elegant and graceful times. This was at the turning point for tennis. Roscoe Tanner and Jimmy Connors were the big servers of the day. The power game was just a few years away, and I remember some commentating by the end of the 80s that tennis was becoming more about the big serve. South African Kevin Curren had a match at Wimbledon where he served 33 aces against Connors in 1983 I think and then boom boom Becker arrived
