Tennis Just a Distant Thought for Borg

Six years after walking away from tennis, Bjorn Borg looks with incomprehending wonder upon his younger self.

The Swede won Wimbledon five consecutive years. Six times he was the French Open champion. Now he views these achievements as if they were the work of a stranger.

“Mentally, I’m so far from tennis, so far from being on the court competing -- if I was to go out and play a match now, I could concentrate, maybe, for one game, that’s all.

“Now I say to myself, ‘How could I concentrate and do those things I did before? How was that possible? Sometimes I ask myself the question and I cannot understand how I could do it,” the 32-year-old said Saturday.

“Emotionally, it’s something that happened in the past. Watching my old matches on television or on tape. I see it the same way as you see it, and I think, ‘Gees, that happened a long time ago.’

“Even if it was five or six years ago, that seems way, way back, it’s like I was 50 years older. Very strange. It’s something that has to do with the mental in me right now,” he said.

Champion of the All England Club from 1976 to 1980, Borg lost his Wimbledon crown in a four-set final to John McEnroe. Two months later, he was runnerup at the U.S. Open final for the fourth time, again losing to McEnroe in four sets, and Borg never played another major tournament.

In 1987, he was elected to the Intrnational Tennis Hall of Fame but did not attend last summer’s induction ceremonies. He was honored Saturday with a presentation.

The long hair is gone, so is the scraggly growth of beard. Wearing a coat and tie, Borg is more talkative than he was as tennis’ first ‘Teen Angel’ in the 1970s, but the famous reserve is still there.

“I’m very low-key now, not hiding, but living more of a normal life. I spend eight or nine months a year in Stockholm, Sweden. And I like to be home most of the time, I’ve been traveling for so many years.”

And family is more important now. His three-year-old son Robin stood next to Borg during the ceremony on center court at the Newport Casino “and he may not know what’s going on, but maybe someday he will stand where I am standing.”

Borg follows closely the sport he dominated and regrets the arrival of graphite and composition rackets, which replaced the wooden one he used. The changed has resulted in pros hitting the ball so hard that on fast surfaces, such as grass, a power player like Boris Becker can turn a match into a duel of serves. Strength overcomes shotmaking.

“I don’t think it was too good to bring in other (racket) materials. In baseball, you still have wooden bats. Why change that in tennis? I would not call it a mistake, but I wouldn’t say it was too smart,” said Borg.

“They should keep tennis the way it was. I don’t think the people watching tennis enjoy it as much as they did before. That’s what I believe.”

Borg’s favorite memory of tennis remains his five-set 1980 Wimbledon final with McEnroe, who was his best rival.

“I miss him in a way, tennis-wise, I miss the matches we had,” said Borg. “Those were the best years of my life. But there’s not too much you can do about it now.”