Borg’s Comeback Begins in Ignominious Defeat

Even the skies wept for Bjorn Borg Tuesday.

An afternoon that began with fans dusting cobwebbed memories in burning sunshine ended with rain falling at the moment Jordi Arrese was applying the coup de grace to the first match in Borg’s tennis comeback.

This principality may offer its wealthy and famous residents a shelter from excessive taxes, but it could not protect Borg from one time-worn reality. They don’t come back. Arrese beat Borg, 6-3, 6-2.

It was 1:07 p.m. when Borg walked out into the glare of a global TV audience.

To an ovation from 8,000, he strode into the sunlight on the clay court above the Mediterranean Sea--a 34-year-old man embracing rose-colored dreams.

One hour 17 minutes of forgettable tennis later, he was a thoroughly beaten player.

His stingless game belongs in an attic with his small, wooden racket.

His forehand was erratic, his backhand lacked penetration and his patience quota appears to have shrunk with age.

But the Swede, five-time champion at Wimbledon, six-time winner of the French Open, insisted: “I have no regrets.”

Not even after losing to a man he would have beaten blindfolded a decade ago.

Arrese, 26, of Spain, is ranked No. 54 in the world. He plays uncomplicated clay-court tennis without threat or menace. He hurt Borg Tuesday with a soft game.

How could Borg expect to take cover from the hardball game of Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl or Andre Agassi?

Borg had entered the court, carved into the hills above the Mediterranean Sea, like a ghost of summers past. His flaxen hair was caressing his shoulders and kept out of his hair by a headband, just as it always was.

His eyes were as cold and unblinking as you remembered. A battery of cameramen locked on to him, but he was oblivious to their presence.

He was alone in his mind. Alone in a time warp.

Borg had come here intending to turn back the calendar.

Yet Borg’s romantically greeted return was nothing more than a sad betrayal of a cherished legend.

Borg claimed he will improve with match play, and that cannot be denied. He could hardly produce a more insipid performance.

Ahead, there is the Italian Open in Rome in three weeks, then the French Open and Wimbledon. He has been guaranteed wild cards to all. A reputation as a legend has some practical purpose.

“I know people have high expectations of me,” said Borg. “But I didn’t put so much pressure on myself.

“I enjoyed competing again. I’m ready to continue and, hopefully, I can stay longer in tournaments.”

Arrese, small, unostentatious and barely a household name in Spain, could not disguise his emotions. “At the start, I didn’t want to play him,” he said. “Now, I wouldn’t change that moment for anything in life. To see all those people come to see Borg, it was very moving.”

He was not the only player to be enraptured by the mystique of Borg. Boris Becker, 23, chose last week to play against him. It was a poignant moment, the past colliding with the present.

“For five years, from 1975-80, Borg was the best player in the world,” Becker said.

It was a day in which thoughts of the past were more pleasant.

Borg, showered and fielding questions before a mass media gathering in the same monotone as his tennis, said: “I think people will still remember what I did 10 years ago, because look how many came today.”

Mats Wilander, who succeeded Borg as No. 1 in Sweden, then the world, voiced the fear inside the game, when he said: “If it goes wrong, I hope people don’t destroy Borg’s name completely. That’s what he is risking.”

Malcolm Folley is senior sportswriter for the London Daily Express.