Surface Winner : Borg Began Making Grass-Clay Connection With the First of Five Wimbledon Titles 20 Years Ago

Twenty years ago, something improbable and unexpected happened here. A clay-court specialist--perhaps the prototypal clay-court player--won the Wimbledon men’s singles title. The man was Bjorn Borg.

It began a remarkable streak that seems unlikely to be duplicated, five consecutive titles on grass, difficult enough, but Borg also won six French Open clay-court titles in eight years, a versatility that does not exist today.

Pete Sampras, the best player of his generation, has won three consecutive Wimbledon titles but no French Opens. Today’s best clay-court player, Thomas Muster, is 0-4 at Wimbledon and has never made it past the first round.

Borg, 40, plays on the Nuveen Tour for players over 35, with events held mostly on clay. It is the Swede’s most natural surface, the best forum for his heavy topspin and baseline prowess. Players used to call the French Open the Borg Invitational, so dominating was he.

Which makes his success at Wimbledon so unusual. Borg seldom played on grass outside of the All England Club. His record at Wimbledon was 51-4; elsewhere on grass he was 6-6.

And he wasn’t dominant in the other two Grand Slam events, losing four U.S. Open finals and never reaching an Australian Open final.

With Wimbledon beginning next week, here’s a look at his titles and some comments from his peers about what allowed Borg to move from clay to grass with such ease:

1976

Borg had failed to win his third consecutive French Open title. Frustrated, he dedicated himself to grass. Borg drilled himself five hours a day at the Cumberland Club in North London.

The work nearly failed him when he pulled a stomach muscle in the first week. He got through his last four singles matches with pre-match cortisone injections and by applying freeze spray on his abdomen during changeovers.

Four weeks after his 20th birthday, he beat Ilie Nastase in the final, 6-4, 6-2, 9-7, to become the third-youngest men’s singles champion in Wimbledon history. Borg became the first man since Chuck McKinley in 1963 to win every set.

Eddie Dibbs, a clay-court specialist, never beat Borg:

“On the clay, he would never miss a ball, never. People don’t realize what a difficult surface grass is to win on, unpredictable. It’s the toughest. You might have thought you had a chance if you were playing Borg on grass, but once you got out there, you had no chance. Mentally, he was so tough. Nothing would bother him. He never got mad at a bad bounce, and on grass, you got them every other ball.”

1977

One of Wimbledon’s most memorable matches was the semifinal in which Borg faced Vitas Gerulaitis, and the two produced breathtaking shots. Borg won, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 8-6, and went on to face his nemesis, Jimmy Connors, in the final.

As expected of the players--but not of the surface--the match was a baseline battle. Borg held a 4-0 lead in the fifth set, then faltered as Connors won four straight to 4-4. Connors double-faulted in ninth game to lose serve and match, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7. 6-4.

Gene Mayer lost to Borg in the quarterfinals in 1980:

“The mistake players have made over the years on grass is that they have played too much in the classic grass style, getting away from their strengths. Borg never changed his game for grass, he modified it. He never served better than at Wimbledon.

“He always had tight matches and was on the ropes. There was electric excitement when he was down; he could dig them out. The French [Open], literally, he could have won for 30 years. On grass, bottom line, Bjorn’s game was not well suited. It was the sheer tenacity and the unwillingness to lose. That was his greatest strength.”

1978

Borg had problems in the early rounds. He nearly lost in the first round to Victor Amaya. Amaya, 6 feet 7 and 220 pounds, had a huge serve and took a lead of two sets to one, and 3-1 in the fourth with a break point on Borg’s serve, but the Swede saved the match.

In the final against Connors, Borg unveiled sharp volleys and a canny new weapon, a sliced backhand approach to Connors’ forehand. Borg won, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, and became the first man since Fred Perry in 1934-36 to win three consecutive Wimbledon singles titles.

Dick Stockton beat Borg a few times but never played him on grass:

“He proved that he was a much better all-around player than people gave him credit for. He had the ability to hit great shots on the run, he was quick. He could intimidate with his serve. He had great hands. I’d see him change his swing, reacting to a bad bounce, then get the ball back for a winner.

“Even when I beat him one time, I almost went through an entire set without winning a point. He was that good. When he was tuned in, he could embarrass people. There was no way to attack him. You’d think, ‘OK, bring him to the net,’ but then you’d have to produce a shot to beat him.

“What he did at Wimbledon was one of the most incredible things to ever happen in tennis, ever. To be able to adapt his game to win Wimbledon five times and be in the finals of six. To have won Wimbledon two weeks after winning the French.”

1979

Early in the tournament, Vijay Amritraj became the only man in four years to hold a match game against Borg. Borg beat him.

Borg met Connors in the semifinals and easily beat him, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. That left left-handed Roscoe Tanner, in his first final.

The match played out in more classic grass-court fashion, with Tanner attacking and Borg forcing the American into risks and mistakes. Still, the pressure on Borg was tremendous.

Borg didn’t show it, but he was in danger of losing and he knew it.

“Especially at the end of the match, I have never been so nervous in my whole life,” Borg said. “I almost couldn’t hold my racket.”

With his 6-7, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory, he became the first man since New Zealand’s Tony Wilding in 1910-13 to win four Wimbledon singles titles in a row.

Mel Purcell played Borg in the second round of Wimbledon in 1981:

“I was like his 35th victim in his streak. That was my problem. I got on the court and I thought, ‘God, Borg!’ instead of me going out there thinking I had a chance to win, I was just in awe. He won probably 60% of his matches because of his name. That was a big psyche job.”

1980

Borg-Connors was always war, but Borg-McEnroe escalated everything.

The final took nearly four hours.

At 5-4 in the fourth set, Borg found himself serving for his 35th consecutive match victory at Wimbledon. He led, 40-15, with double match point. McEnroe saved both and broke to bring it to 5-5.

Each held serve to bring on the tiebreaker, which seemed to offer everything: It lasted 22 minutes and included 34 points. There were five championship points for Borg and seven set points for McEnroe. McEnroe finally won, 18-16.

“I thought mentally he’d get down after that,” McEnroe said. “It would have gotten me a little down, but it didn’t seem to get to him. He’s won it four times. You’d think he might let down and say ‘Forget it.’ ”

Borg squandered seven break points in the fifth set before winning, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (18-16), 8-6.

It was his last Wimbledon title.

From “Bud Collins’ Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis” on Borg’s final Wimbledon triumph:

“At the instant he fell to his knees in that signature ritual of triumph, the man was at the top of his game and at the peak of a career that challenged history for an equal. It marked his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title, following on the heels of a fifth French Open championship, all achieved at the tender age of 24. He would close out the year by winning the Volvo Masters for a second successive year and stand unchallenged as the leading figure in the sport.”

Not for long. Borg all but retired the next year and lost to McEnroe in the Wimbledon final, losing at Wimbledon at last after 41 consecutive victories.

After losing early in the U.S. Open later that summer, Borg left the court and, still in his tennis clothes, drove directly to the airport to fly home. At 25, Borg hung up his headband, a victim of burnout, and also of success.

“Few, few players have ever had his kind of versatility,” Purcell said. “It’s all mental. He’d win the French and come over at Wimbledon. He was that good. He was almost like a robot, you’d program him for each surface.

“Players today say, ‘You need three months to prepare for each surface.’ That’s hogwash. Borg defeated that idea too. We all look back at what he did and say, ‘Dang, how’d he do that?’ ”

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The Championships Wimbledons: Facts & Figures

* Dates: Monday through July 7.

* Surface: Grass.

* Purse: $9.76 million.

* Men’s first prize: $592,675.

* Women’s first prize: $533,030.

* TV: Weekends on NBC. First-week weekdays on HBO. Second-week weekdays NBC and HBO.

* Defending champions: Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf.

*

HISTORY: After the end of World War II, reestablishing a tradition called Wimbledon wasn’t easy, reports Bud Collins, and the most worrisome aspect was the shortage of balls. C4