Two tennis legend, two super players in the world Bjorn and John God bless you, I will never forget them and I will also never forget Boris Becker and Steffi Graff in my life, I am from North India punjab and now I am 66 years old
The first time Nadal beat Federer at a Wimbledon Final in that epic match is right up there. But, somehow that tie breaker is still bigger. I was glued to the tv on both of those events. Happily.
They also, unwittingly, played a huge part in the casual culture in British football. Or their kit manufacturers did. Fila BJ tracksuits, Sergio Tacchini, Lacoste, Ellesse, etc. A green Fila BJ setanta tracksuit top is an almost mythical item now!! Well, an original one from back then anyway!! Worth a fortune!!
Easily the greatest 20 minutes of tennis (or possibly any other individual sporting perfection) you'll ever see. With Borg, after a point, you couldn't ever tell if he's just won or lost it. And McEnroe's natural genius has never been equaled - he made up shots in a split second that no-one ever dreamed of
thank whoever sponsors the senior circuit. it's good for McEnroe and Borg . good for me too because i grew up with and love these gentlemen -love to see recent footage of them.
This is a really good documentary. Oh and the drama when these two played....to watch it on youtube now is nice but back then watching the 1980 US Open final was huge.....you had to be there!
@@jahno7154 According to a documentary, McEnroe had an outburst in one match against Borg, then Borg came up to him and said "relax, it´s just a game, you´re doing good", instead of just telling him to shut up or fuck off like other players did when they got tired of McEnroes behavior. According to McEnroe, Borgs words made him feel better and he actually ended up winning that match. After that he never lost his temper while playing Borg again. And yes, they became close friends and are still close.
I catched that too - he is just that kind of a guy/athlete. NOTHING on the court escapes his eagle eye. I remember once him shouting at an umpire that ONE ball was lacking in play, out of 15?
i was born 1968, in our tennis courts that is 10 meters away from our house,,,my grandpa told me that tennis is a GENTLEMANS GAME...thats y we love bjorn- dec. 14, 2018
Mr McEnroe and Mr. Borg Changed Tennis and hit the scene in perfect harmony with Cable TV and ESPN. As much as some of the Media hated Mac's on court tirades, They Quivered with Joy as they penned nonstop articles about McEnroe and his foibles and their words had the Eloquence & Drama of a Shakespearean Character...and the Media Rode their coat tails to the Bank. It even came down to Fisticuffs and Charley Steiner rolling on the ground in the Media Tent battling the English Media - it was like throwing Tea in the Boston Harbor vs. throwing Tobacco in the English Channel. And we all all ate it up cause we loved it too.
Ian Edmonds I saw it yesterday on a flight from Bulgaria back home to Sweden. You are so right. Well, it is (after all) the reason I am here! Luv and Peace to you too. 😉
McEnroe hated it...said it was misrepresentative and parts of it were blatantly untrue. McEnroe and Borg tried to get onboard as advisors, but the money and the business of films was too much of a mess, so they backed out. He did praise Shia Labeouf's performance, but said the tennis shots didn't live up to the reality, then again, he also conceded that it is just a film, so it's never going to match the reality. I haven't seen it myself, but no doubt will watch it at some point. Thanks for the recommend.
I absolutely hated him as a tennis player but love him so much as a broadcaster. When I watch a major final now I always hope he's one of the broadcasters and am elated when he is. I know John McEnroe is going to give the best analysis of anybody today. He makes the match that more interesting when he broadcasts. No matter what my feelings about him as a tennis player maybe I always tell everybody nobody played the net better than John McEnroe.
I don't like how they try to read so deeply into Borg's mind with the call Borg argued in the Masters in Jan 81. That was not some mental meltdown from Borg...it was a TERRIBLE call by the chair ump. McEnroe would have had a heart attack had something like that been called against him.
Correct. That umpire was a joke. Gave Borg TWO penalty points, then later on called an ace out when it was clearly in, so McEnroe laughed and on Borg's next serve, hit it into the stands to give him the point and as a slap to the umpire. Neither Borg nor McEnroe shook the umpire's hand either as they walked off. The alliance of true champions.
I forgot that the great McEnroe/Borg 5 set final at the U.S. Open was actually 1980, as opposed to 1981. The latter was Borg's final grand slam match, at the age of 25.
@John G. Lewis. The 1980 U.S. Open final between Borg and McEnroe, unfortunately, was not a great match from a quality standpoint despite it going the 5-set distance because Borg played horribly in the second set and had to struggle to play well the rest of the match. During the 5th set, CBS Sports broadcaster Pat Summerall made the ridiculous statement to analyst/color commentator Tony Trabert that he Summerall thought the match was just as good as the Wimbledon final that year between Borg and McEnroe. Trabert realized that the quality of play by Borg in that U.S. Open final at that moment was nowhere near the quality of tennis seen in the Wimbledon final, but he chose not to embarrass Summerall and obviously did not want to anger the CBS Sports hierarchy by stating honestly that the quality of play by Borg was very bad in that match!
Because of McEnroe's outbursts on court and verbal abuse of tennis officials, he undoubtedly got a lot of bad calls against him in his matches, the most famous example of which was in the 3rd set of the 1981 Wimbledon final serving at 4-5, 15-30, McEnroe's volley landed right on the baseline, the baseline judge called it good and chair umpire Bob Jenkins made the egregiously horrible overrule calling the ball out, awarding Borg double set point! McEnroe miraculously saved both of those break points and two others in that critical game with superb serving (especially second serving) to even the score in the 3rd set at 5 games all and went on to win the match. Chair umpires are never supposed to overrule a linesman's call on a ball that is that close to the line! One has to wonder, if Borg had capitalized on any one of those four set points in that critical game and gone up 2-1 in sets and had gone on to win a sixth Wimbledon title in a row, would he, despite his mental burn out from pro tennis, have played in the 1982 Wimbledon tournament to try to win a 7th consecutive title there?!
I respect John McEnroe for fighting for calls. John an incredible Tennis player. Awesome Talent. The thing is I don't understand why the Umpires had to take all the abuse from the players like John and not fight back. Incredible one sided. The Wimbledon Umpires should have fought back or DQ's him as was done in the 1990 Australian Open. That's the only way to fight back.
it's because he was the biggest money draw. he knew it, and knew what he could get away with as a result. personally, I have no respect for the man, or anyone who doesn't treat others with respect.
Uncle Tony John was a very nice man, I met him the next year after Wimbledon, he was kind with his time, and he Borg, Vilas, help, Vitas gerulaitis foundation, and help inner city kids play tennis, I was part of that crowd.
The crowd isn't there to watch the umpires do their job. It takes, may be a decade of intense work, to reach the main draw or final rounds at a grand slams. There is a lot of intensity and passion from the players to win. If you search for bad decisions by Umpires, you will definitely find plenty. Umpires don't have much to lose if they make a bad call but the players have a lot to lose. In addition I feel, one should show more of his personality on court, otherwise the game will have a whole bunch of robots.
@ William Gonzalez. Borg, although definitely one of the top 10 greatest male tennis players of all-time, is definitely not the GOAT! And to include Coria in the top 10 of all-time is an absolute joke! He's not even in the top 20 greatest male tennis players of all-time! Connors and Vilas are in no way, shape or form better than Rod Laver and Connors is realistically about the 10th greatest player of all-time! Vilas is in the top 20 (of the wood/metal rackets era) of all-time but definitely not in the top 10 of all-time! Vilas was essentially, despite his two Australian Open titles on grass courts which he won without having to play against Borg, Connors or McEnroe, a one surface specialist. A much more realistic top 10 list of the greatest male tennis players of all time - and you have to make two separate lists - one for the wood/metal rackets era and a separate list for the graphite era - would be as follows (with all the players at the very peak of their respective primes and with the conditions as they were from the 1980's-1990's - i.e., no lubricated strings, no larger Type3 tennis balls, and the faster courts of that era): Graphite Era - McEnroe, Sampras, Federer, Becker, Lendl, Edberg, Djokovic, Agassi, Nadal and Wilander. You have to give the serve-and-volleyers the edge over the baseliners in general because the dimensions of the tennis court favor net play over baseline play on the faster surfaces that were so extensive in the pro game back then. In terms of the wood/metal rackets era: Laver, McEnroe, Kramer, Budge, Tilden, Borg, Connors. Vines and Hoad at their absolute best were almost unbeatable but they were very inconsistent. Pancho Gonzales was a great player but was dominated by Kramer and failed to achieve enough. Rosewall was excellent when longevity is considered and Roy Emerson was a very strong player but won a lot of major singles titles only after Laver and Rosewall turned pro, so Rosewall and Emerson were excellent but not strong enough to be in the top 6 of all-time in terms of the wood/metal rackets era.
I think John McEnroe is most talents and teknic player ever, and Borg was fysic on of best at the time, We have to of the most talent in the world, on in tennis John McEnroe, and on in table tennis Jan-Owe Waldner, this guys do thinks whit the bolls, that Amadeus Mozat do on piano.
John McEnroe was great at his job and expected the line judges and chair officials to be great at their jobs as well. Thats why he was like he was with them. Many of them were not qualified or fit for the jobs. Too old with poor eye sight especially at Wimbledon. I mean look at the old umpire that Mac called the pits of the world. Theat guy is between 60 and 70 years old wearing glasses. Im sorry but at that age you shouldnt be calling lines in a pro tennis game. Its crazy.
Borg's now ex wife was a tennis player herself and smoked. That made sense. When I was single, I wouldn't date anyone who smoked. It's gross. I'm glad Borg did better.
o please get a life.... we all make our own choices. Do you drive a car? do you fly around in airplanes for the holidays? One trip on one of those blows more cancer into the world then a smoker does in their enitire liftime. Don't you date women who drive a car of take an airplane? We al make our own choices. And cars and plains are far worse then smoking.
Blondie. Bloooonnnddiee....great music excellent choice...excellent,people forget Borg was macs hero or they did know...funny how he did act like his idiol.
