McEnroe: Borg’s Sudden Exit Was Blow to Tennis

John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. Along with Jimmy Connors, they are the most compelling personalities in men’s tennis in the last 20 years, but McEnroe said the other day that Borg’s abrupt departure from the game 10 years ago caused a rift that hasn’t yet healed.

“That was a big blow for tennis,” McEnroe said.

“I think people were afraid to focus on why would a guy who’s 25 years old walk away. . . . I don’t think tennis has totally recovered from it yet.”

McEnroe said hello to Borg two weeks after Wimbledon at an ATP tournament in Washington, but said he didn’t get a chance to really say anything else. It was the first time he had seen Borg at an event since the 1981 U.S. Open.

“It’s really hard to know what he’s thinking or what he’s trying to accomplish,” McEnroe said of Borg’s comeback. “Anyone who knows anything about sports knows how difficult, after a 10- or 12-year layoff, it is to come back and even come close to anywhere near where they were before. That’s probably impossible. . . .

“If it’s just because he’s happy hitting tennis balls, then I’m happy for him (but) it’s hard to imagine someone that’s had the success he’s had to be happy losing every match he plays.

“But as opposed to the other problems he had been involved with . . . the so-called clothing thing and some of the other chronic problems that he’s had, then maybe it is best he’s playing, doing something he knows about.

“It’s sort of difficult to watch right now because he’s obviously nowhere near to what he was. . . . If you come back and you’ve been the No. 1 player in the world and you’re considered one of the greatest players of all time and you can’t beat your way out of a paper bag . . . I’m not sure that’s what . . . you would like to see.

Borg, ranked No. 920, said he is getting more confident on the court, but doesn’t regret quitting in 1982.

“I made the right decision for me,” he told the Associated Press in an interview last week in Boston. “At that time, I didn’t enjoy playing tennis, it wasn’t fun anymore. I didn’t really care if I was winning or losing.”

Borg said he realizes expectations of the fans are high, but cautioned against it. “They have to realize it’s not 10 or 15 years ago. . . . I expected not to do so well.

“I just have to find my own rhythm. The game has changed.”

Borg denied that money problems forced him to return to playing tennis.

“I play tennis because I enjoy playing tennis,” he said. “As long as I enjoy it I will continue to play.

“Right now if I go on the court, I like to win and I’ll try hard to win. But if I should lose it’s not the end of the world.”

McEnroe said Borg is just a commodity of the tennis business once again, although nowhere near the product he was 12 years ago.

“Someone is going to try to milk him because his name is Bjorn Borg and you hate to have to see that, but that’s the way it is right now in the world. They pay him a buck and they want a buck in a return. Just business.”