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Great players who left far too early
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Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:00:06This is live, just past two o'clock in the afternoon in London, overcast afternoon, a
00:00:12threat of rain, but I think the weather will hold up.
00:00:15Wimbledon 1980, there was a special match, that's what people remember.
00:00:21It's this sort of magic when our names are mentioned together.
00:00:32For both me and John, everybody loves to see our rivalry, and we always bring out the best
00:00:39from each other.
00:00:43Here they come, the officials walking to their positions.
00:00:50Bjorn in Del...
00:00:53...hope to some degree I've done the same with him.
00:00:57The photographers in a phalanx awaiting these two men, John McEnroe and the Emperor, Emperor
00:01:02Bjorn, 15,000 people ready, 3,000 in standing room, and now they're coming out, and may the
00:01:10better man win.
00:01:12He was eager, and I mean, you could see that on John, that he's going to be a great champion.
00:01:25We brought tennis to a place that it wasn't at before.
00:01:30That's a match I will remember the rest of my life.
00:01:46Johnny McEnroe there, this is his first Wimbledon final.
00:01:50He's going to be a little nervous.
00:01:52Borg owns this court.
00:01:54They walked out there that day to play a match.
00:01:58...find a legend.
00:01:59Ever since that summer afternoon at Wimbledon, every great rivalry has been compared to McEnroe
00:02:05and Borg.
00:02:06Even if their story is as much about what could have been as what was.
00:02:16When I was like eight, nine years old, I had two dreams.
00:02:20One, to be part of the Swedish Davis Cup team, and to play on Wimbledon center court.
00:02:30When I was eight years old, my father won a table tennis tournament.
00:02:35He could pick a lot of prizes, but I saw a tennis racket, and I told my father, please,
00:02:41take the racket.
00:02:42So the next day, I was up playing with my friends, and I loved it from the beginning.
00:02:47From the first ball I hit, my parents never pushed me.
00:02:51I just wanted to play tennis.
00:02:53It was simple as that.
00:02:55Björn Ruhn Borg, the only child of middle-class working parents, was born and raised in Södertalje,
00:03:02an industrial town 20 miles outside of Stockholm.
00:03:05It was there, in a small apartment complex, that his passion for tennis grew.
00:03:11I went out when I had free time, and playing at this garage door all the time.
00:03:16I could stay there for five hours.
00:03:19That dedication paid off when he gained the notice of the Swedish Tennis Federation in Stockholm.
00:03:24He didn't have any winning strokes, but he had a footwork like hell.
00:03:31When I came back to my paper in Stockholm, I said, I have seen a guy who can be one
00:03:37of the best players in the world.
00:03:39He was so eager to be good, you know.
00:03:41He said, I have this in my mind, number one in the world.
00:03:47He was 11 years old.
00:03:50But in his eagerness, there was little regard for sportsmanship.
00:03:54He had quite a bad temper when he was young.
00:03:58He played some junior matches.
00:04:03He was not so good.
00:04:05Cheating, swearing, throwing rackets, telling people to, you know.
00:04:11It came to a point that the tennis club contacted my parents.
00:04:14And they decided that we had to suspend him for six months.
00:04:19And then he changed his attitude so good, he didn't show anything.
00:04:28Icebjörn, they called him.
00:04:29I mean, I was boiling inside, but I didn't say anything.
00:04:33And promised myself I'm not going to open my mouth on the tennis court.
00:04:36Because I loved it too much.
00:04:38I think that was the best lesson I could have.
00:04:41Will you be able to sit on the tennis court?
00:04:43Yes.
00:04:44Yes.
00:04:45Soon, Sweden's Davis Cup captain...
00:04:47What do you mean here?
00:04:49Going to 56.
00:04:50This is like 1973.
00:04:52Why were they in black and white?
00:04:55Lenart Berglund became Borg's coach and mentor.
00:04:59And selected the 15-year-old to play in the international competition.
00:05:03We are a close fraternity in Sweden, all the players.
00:05:06And there was this little twerp coming in.
00:05:09And everybody wondering, now who's he?
00:05:11And we soon learned to know who he was.
00:05:13In 1973, Borg made his debut at Wimbledon, the game's most prestigious event.
00:05:20Though he struggled to find his footing on a foreign surface.
00:05:25Grass was a bit of a mystery to him, but he was determined to become the greatest player of all
00:05:31time.
00:05:31And to do that, you had to win at Wimbledon.
00:05:35Borg was stopped in the quarter-final.
00:05:37But along the way, his good looks and shy manner added a new dimension to his life.
00:05:44Tennis teen idol.
00:05:45We will come!
00:05:48Sometimes, some of the girls, they come up to my room and knock on the door.
00:05:54So Lenart said, you're not supposed to be here.
00:05:56You have to go.
00:05:58I said to Lenart, come on.
00:06:01Be nice, Lenart.
00:06:03This was the first tennis player who became a rock star.
00:06:07And we called it Borgmania.
00:06:09I feel sorry for him because, I mean, he's only 18 and if he wants to relax, so many people
00:06:14who want even just to touch him.
00:06:16Really?
00:06:17Yes.
00:06:18He was like the Beatles, for God's sake.
00:06:20I mean, you know, he was just Björn.
00:06:22Is there anybody in the world you would rather be?
00:06:25Yeah, maybe sometimes.
00:06:26I want to be a private person.
00:06:28So I can, nobody knows you.
00:06:30You always felt like you have to hide.
00:06:32We spent a lot of time in the hotel rooms.
00:06:36You felt like pushed up close to the wall.
00:06:39I sacrificed a lot of things, but I want to achieve my goals.
00:06:44The following year, the 18-year-old became the youngest men's singles champion in French Open history.
00:06:54In 1975, he led Sweden to its first ever Davis Cup title.
00:07:01And then in 1976, Borg conquered the Wimbledon grass without dropping a single set in the tournament.
00:07:10He was 20 years old.
00:07:12Barely a decade after picking up his first racket, he'd already realized his childhood dreams.
00:07:18That was something special.
00:07:31One of the pleasant surprises of the first week at Wimbledon has been the performance of 18-year-old John
00:07:35McEnroe,
00:07:36who, qualifying through three rounds, has now reached the quarterfinals
00:07:40and finds himself in the second week at Wimbledon.
00:07:42I asked John how he felt about his chances.
00:07:44I was trying to be cool.
00:07:47Should I say something?
00:07:48Oh.
00:07:50It was a wonderful story.
00:07:52He was a new face.
00:07:54Do you like the attention?
00:07:56Well, I don't really know.
00:07:58I guess so.
00:07:58I mean, it's good to, you know, want to see people taking...
00:08:02And he was so shy.
00:08:05Couldn't look you in the eye.
00:08:07But you could see, here's a prodigy.
00:08:09John Patrick McEnroe, Jr., was the eldest of Kay and John McEnroe, Sr.'s three sons.
00:08:15He spent his childhood in Douglaston, Queens, a leafy middle-class suburb of New York City.
00:08:21It seemed like the place that I wanted to get out of, and the goal was to get into Manhattan.
00:08:27That was when you made it big.
00:08:29Making it big was what John McEnroe, Sr. succeeded in doing,
00:08:34becoming a partner at a prominent Manhattan law firm.
00:08:37My mom loves to tell the story of my dad going to law school,
00:08:40and there was 500 people, and he finished second.
00:08:43And so he comes home and says, I finished second.
00:08:46Well, why didn't you finish first?
00:08:48I got a 98 on the test.
00:08:51How come you didn't get 100?
00:08:53It was pretty clear.
00:08:55You know, you did your homework, you worked hard, and you tried to be the best.
00:09:00The McEnroes were members of the nearby Douglaston Club,
00:09:04which meant access to five tennis courts just a block away from their home.
00:09:08Because it was so close, that's really the reason I started to play.
00:09:11I know my father wanted me to do it, and he did push me to do it.
00:09:14So I would say that it was the right amount in retrospect.
00:09:18At times it felt like it was too much.
00:09:20At 12 years old, McEnroe was ranked seventh in the country in his age group.
00:09:25His parents looked to grow his talents even further
00:09:27at the highly regarded Port Washington Tennis Academy on Long Island.
00:09:31I was taught really well.
00:09:33Tony Palafox and Harry Hotman instilled in me how mental the game was.
00:09:37Harry Hotman, who ran the place, was a fabled disciplinarian.
00:09:41This is a man who trained Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall,
00:09:44and John just never liked that part of the program.
00:09:46He would play pretty much on his terms,
00:09:49and Mr. Hotman would let John slide on that.
00:09:52The big irony is of the American versus the European
00:09:55is that John McEnroe was born in Germany,
00:10:00which is not too far from Sweden.
00:10:04I wasn't looking to cause trouble.
00:10:06I just was looking to get on the court.
00:10:08A waste of time would be the wrong word,
00:10:09but I didn't understand it at that time.
00:10:12It's almost as though he didn't want to break him.
00:10:14He knew that John was different from everybody else.
00:10:18If I keep going to something, he will get bored
00:10:21and start making mistakes, and then he will explode.
00:10:24He's very smart, and he had a good touch.
00:10:26I like to be aggressive.
00:10:28If you cower at some level,
00:10:31the people are just going to be all over you.
00:10:32He wasn't that big, but good placement.
00:10:34He was a runt.
00:10:35You know, his nickname was Runt.
00:10:37He was small.
00:10:38One of the pros was talking about this kid, Max,
00:10:41a 12-year-old kid, and I was 16 at the time,
00:10:44and we said, all right, fine, let's set up a bet,
00:10:47and I will whip him.
00:10:48We played five sets.
00:10:49I didn't win one of them.
00:10:51And tennis took on a new kind of appeal
00:10:53when he got a job as a U.S. Open bowl boy
00:10:56and earned an up-close look at an emerging phenom.
00:11:00I've never seen a tennis player look like this.
00:11:02He had this sort of perfect Viking godlike look,
00:11:05and I certainly wanted to get the same type of things
00:11:09that he seemed to be getting,
00:11:10which was a lot of interests and a lot of girls.
00:11:15It was like, whoa, being a tennis player is really cool.
00:11:19He spent his high school years
00:11:21at the prestigious Trinity School in Manhattan,
00:11:23a volatile prodigy,
00:11:24coming to terms with a game that suited him best.
00:11:28I still wanted to play other sports.
00:11:31I'd like to tell you that I'd be a better soccer player.
00:11:34I got benched a couple times
00:11:37because of these sort of outbursts.
00:11:39I go to the coach, why are we doing this?
00:11:41And then sit me down,
00:11:42because how dare I rebel against authority?
00:11:44The hell with it.
00:11:45I don't want to deal with coaches,
00:11:46and I don't want to deal with other players.
00:11:47I don't want to deal with anyone
00:11:49if they're going to be sort of on a different wavelength than me.
00:11:52And so that maybe pushed me more towards tennis a little bit.
00:11:55Wow, who does?
00:11:56In the summer of 1977,
00:11:58the 18-year-old skipped his high school graduation
00:12:01to play junior tennis in Europe.
00:12:03A few weeks into his trip,
00:12:06John McEnroe was playing
00:12:07in the men's quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
00:12:09And he came out and he was just,
00:12:11whoa, whoa, who's this guy?
00:12:14He just went from level 3 to level 10.
00:12:18He was just in one jump.
00:12:20I had a respect for pros.
00:12:22It was just that once he got on the court,
00:12:25if this guy's not as good as I am,
00:12:28that's too bad.
00:12:29And perhaps just as surprising as his success
00:12:32was his petulance.
00:12:33I try to snap my racket when I lost the second set.
00:12:37Why are people bullying me if I try to break my racket?
00:12:40So when that happened,
00:12:42I thought, okay, let me just see what happens if I kick it.
00:12:45That provokes a reaction.
00:12:47He was faced with this raft of people at Wimbledon
00:12:50who expected a certain standard of decorum
00:12:54and he didn't recognize anything.
00:12:56You're quite sure?
00:12:57Seven at all.
00:13:00The ball was so far in.
00:13:01Do you see it in?
00:13:02His behavior was eccentric
00:13:05to the point of being anguished.
00:13:08He saw perfection from his own tennis
00:13:10and everybody around him
00:13:12had better be in a perfect mode as well.
00:13:15His life has flown out of him like a river
00:13:16and you can just read the truth
00:13:18right in what you're seeing.
00:13:19People were just riveted by him.
00:13:21I read a lot about Wimbledon before I came here
00:13:23and most of it I heard was good
00:13:24but I think the crowds get a little out of hand.
00:13:27Here came a son of anarchy
00:13:30that nobody was prepared for.
00:13:33It was Hurricane John.
00:13:34The unknown qualifier emerged
00:13:36as the youngest semi-finalist in Wimbledon history
00:13:39before his storybook run
00:13:41ended at the hands of the ferocious Jimmy Connors.
00:13:44Puts a little more pressure on all of a sudden
00:13:46the old, yeah, you can do it.
00:13:48Oh, I'm playing Jimmy Connors.
00:13:49Okay.
00:13:50Connors is not the friendliest of guys,
00:13:52especially when you're about to play him.
00:13:56He beat me before I walked on the court, I think.
00:13:59It just seemed like it was a bit all too overwhelming.
00:14:05It would be Connors who went on
00:14:07to face the defending champion in the final.
00:14:10And for the second straight year,
00:14:11it was Bjorn Boer who would raise the Wimbledon trophy.
00:14:15A year later,
00:14:16after winning an NCAA championship
00:14:18as a freshman at Stanford University,
00:14:21McEnroe decided a professional career could wait no longer.
00:14:24I wasn't totally convinced that this was the path I would have chosen
00:14:29had I been able to choose anything I wanted.
00:14:33I at least was smart enough to realize
00:14:36that this is like a golden opportunity.
00:14:38You could make money.
00:14:40You could be an athlete.
00:14:41So I thought,
00:14:43I've got to make the most of this.
00:14:4978, we play first time in Stockholm.
00:14:52I knew it's going to be a difficult match.
00:14:55For me, it's the biggest match of my life
00:14:57because it's him.
00:14:58Five months after turning pro,
00:15:01McEnroe met Borg for the first time
00:15:03in the semifinals of the Stockholm Open.
00:15:06Though it was the young American
00:15:07who made himself at home.
00:15:09It was a very, very fast quit.
00:15:12Lightning quit.
00:15:13Perfect for John.
00:15:14Horrible for Bjorn.
00:15:16I saw his talent, of course.
00:15:17He had so much for free.
00:15:19He doesn't need to practice so hard as Bjorn
00:15:23to make those strokes.
00:15:25He played very, very aggressive.
00:15:27He was moving into the net very fast.
00:15:29He beat me in straight sets.
00:15:32The semis of Stockholm, big deal, right?
00:15:35He's going to try to downplay it.
00:15:37But for me, it was a huge step up.
00:15:40After the match, we didn't say too much.
00:15:42And actually, that was the first time
00:15:43I lost to a younger player.
00:15:46After that match, we went out in Stockholm
00:15:48and it got to be about four o'clock.
00:15:51And I said, hey, Junior, I'm tired.
00:15:53I'm going to bed.
00:15:54He said, I'm only going to beat Bjorn Borg
00:15:56for the first time, once in my life,
00:16:00I'm going to celebrate.
00:16:01And it suddenly dawned on me that...
00:16:04And McEnroe had beaten Bjorn Borg.
00:16:10Borg was 22, old enough that I graduated college.
00:16:16McEnroe was still a teenager.
00:16:18I hadn't won the tournament yet.
00:16:20We booked a practice court the next day
00:16:22before I was flying to London.
00:16:25And he was hopeless.
00:16:28Got back to London, picked up the paper.
00:16:30McEnroe defeats Gullickson 6-2, 6-2.
00:16:33That was his gift.
00:16:36Back stateside a few months later,
00:16:38McEnroe unwittingly won something else from Borg.
00:16:41His affection.
00:16:43The next matches we played was in Richmond, Virginia.
00:16:47He was serving for the match,
00:16:49and I hit like four or five unbelievable returns.
00:16:54And then I ended up winning the match.
00:16:57John was sitting over there.
00:16:58He was going like this.
00:17:00You know, this is the way John sits
00:17:01when he loses the match.
00:17:03We went back to the hotel.
00:17:06Leonard forgot the tennis bag.
00:17:08So he went back to the stadium.
00:17:11And who was sitting there, like one hour later?
00:17:14John.
00:17:15Next week we played in New Orleans.
00:17:17That was the first time he was going completely berserk.
00:17:21It was like maybe some mental patience, you know,
00:17:26they released or whatever.
00:17:31I guess that I was sort of acting a little crazy
00:17:34and just getting all excited,
00:17:36which was sort of par for the course.
00:17:38I believe it was about five all in the third set.
00:17:41Then I told John,
00:17:42please, John, come.
00:17:44And then I remember thinking,
00:17:45oh my God, he's going to tell me
00:17:47I'm the biggest asshole that ever lived.
00:17:49And I just can't handle this.
00:17:51Why did I do this?
00:17:52That's looking at him.
00:17:54What the hell you want?
00:17:57And I said to John,
00:17:58please, come to the net.
00:17:59I mean, I came up,
00:18:00and I was ready just to be blasted,
00:18:02and then he just said,
00:18:04listen, this is a game.
00:18:06Relax.
00:18:06Take it easy.
00:18:08And I was like,
00:18:09I just,
00:18:10I was completely floored.
00:18:12I didn't know what to even think.
00:18:14At first I was,
00:18:15wait a minute,
00:18:16is he trying to do something,
00:18:17throw me off here?
00:18:19Inside I was laughing.
00:18:20And he looked at me with those eyes.
00:18:23And then I thought,
00:18:24well, maybe he's just actually
00:18:25saying something that's nice.
00:18:28And it actually relaxed me,
00:18:30which is probably not what he wanted to happen.
00:18:34Or maybe he did.
00:18:36Maybe he learned something.
00:18:37I felt sorry for him in a way.
00:18:41What I took from it
00:18:42was that he had accepted me,
00:18:45and that I could look at any other player,
00:18:48and if they said anything to me,
00:18:49I could just say,
00:18:50well, Bjorn said, it's okay.
00:18:52The least I could do
00:18:53was to try a little harder
00:18:55when I was playing him.
00:18:56So I had to be on my best behavior.
00:18:58Plus, I respected him.
00:19:00I ended up losing the match.
00:19:02I knew that this was going to be
00:19:04a great champion.
00:19:06I knew I was going to play him
00:19:07many more times.
00:19:08I liked this guy from the beginning.
00:19:10The chemistry between
00:19:12the American and the Swede
00:19:13was an emerging piece
00:19:14of a broader storyline in the sport.
00:19:17With a deep field of players
00:19:19boasting personality and style,
00:19:21a tennis boom was underway.
00:19:24But no star was bigger than Borg's.
00:19:26His fourth straight Wimbledon championship,
00:19:29along with four French Open titles,
00:19:31played in the game's undisputed king.
00:19:34This guy did everything just right.
00:19:37He didn't say a word.
00:19:39Do you have any special feelings
00:19:40when it comes to playing
00:19:41in your old home country?
00:19:44No, no feelings at all.
00:19:45He had this laconic,
00:19:47almost like a Western gunslinger
00:19:49type of mentality
00:19:50where he never seemed
00:19:51to feel obliged to say anything,
00:19:52but was really, really dangerous.
00:19:54He had created
00:19:55a whole new view of the game.
00:19:58Bjorn Borg had made tennis cool
00:20:00with an allure
00:20:01that had gone global.
00:20:05He was, at that time,
00:20:07one of the most well-known
00:20:10people in the world.
00:20:12He was so popular.
00:20:13Everybody liked him.
00:20:15He just looked cool on the court.
00:20:18I think everyone wanted
00:20:19to look like Bjorn.
00:20:20Certainly, he had the cool clothes
00:20:22and the sweet headband
00:20:24and the great locks.
00:20:26I mean, I had long hair
00:20:28and you have to look perfect,
00:20:31you know?
00:20:32I used to always comb it
00:20:33because my parents wanted me
00:20:34to, especially my mom,
00:20:35wear it pretty short,
00:20:36but as I got into high school,
00:20:38I wanted to wear it longer
00:20:39because it's the 70s.
00:20:44It took like five minutes
00:20:46to fix your hair.
00:20:50I mean, it was more natural
00:20:51to have a headband.
00:20:56But mine started, like,
00:20:57frizzing too much.
00:21:01So while I was desperate
00:21:02to have the hair like Bjorn,
00:21:04it sort of went out
00:21:06like Bozo the Clown more.
00:21:09McEnroe neither looked like Borg
00:21:11nor trained like him.
00:21:13No one did.
00:21:14I think the strongest part
00:21:16of my game was
00:21:17the mental and physical strength
00:21:20I had.
00:21:20You know, I'd never been tired
00:21:22in a tennis match.
00:21:24I'm, like, the best player
00:21:26for two hours.
00:21:28If it gets past two hours,
00:21:30then my odds start dropping.
00:21:34Borg's facility to practice
00:21:36became the point of myth.
00:21:38John McEnroe found
00:21:39that playing doubles
00:21:40was a more enjoyable way
00:21:41to practice
00:21:42than going out
00:21:43and hitting ball
00:21:44after ball,
00:21:45after ball,
00:21:45after ball.
00:21:46Lazy is not the right word.
00:21:48I don't think I am lazy,
00:21:49but perhaps didn't love
00:21:51the training.
00:21:52Borg had this incredibly
00:21:53regimented preparation.
00:21:55He'd sleep for 10 hours a night
00:21:57at a certain temperature,
00:21:58naked,
00:21:59and they'd always drive
00:22:00the same route
00:22:01to the tournament.
00:22:03He sat in the same chair.
00:22:05He had the same two towels
00:22:06next to him.
00:22:07He'd lay out 50 rackets,
00:22:09and he'd test the tension
00:22:10of each in sort of perfect
00:22:11musical pitch.
00:22:13And he'd select the rackets
00:22:14for each match.
00:22:16My strings were a lot looser,
00:22:17so therefore I used my racket
00:22:19as a slingshot.
00:22:20He was like a battering ram.
00:22:21You know, he'd just boom.
00:22:22It was the opposite of feel.
00:22:23He was bludgeoning in it.
00:22:26He was out of my league,
00:22:27and my job was to get somewhere
00:22:29in the same vicinity
00:22:30of where he was already at.
00:22:32And just a little more
00:22:33than a year
00:22:33after joining the tour
00:22:34full-time,
00:22:36McEnroe did just that,
00:22:38vaulting into the top five
00:22:39and then winning the U.S. Open.
00:22:42By the end of 79,
00:22:43at least,
00:22:44I felt like I was
00:22:45a legitimate rival.
00:22:47But at Wimbledon,
00:22:48as Borg continued
00:22:49to chalk up titles,
00:22:51McEnroe had had little success
00:22:52following his startling
00:22:541977 debut.
00:22:56He'd won just three matches
00:22:57in two years.
00:22:59It's not like the drum beat
00:23:01going into Wimbledon
00:23:02was, oh,
00:23:03we're finally going to get
00:23:04a Borg-McEnroe final.
00:23:06There was no indication
00:23:07that John
00:23:08was going to be up
00:23:09to the circumstances
00:23:10of the occasion.
00:23:12It was more of a struggle
00:23:13than I thought it would be
00:23:15to better my first result.
00:23:18I was like,
00:23:19I'm going to show
00:23:20each and every one of them.
00:23:22McEnroe stormed
00:23:23to the semifinals,
00:23:24setting up another face-off
00:23:25with Jimmy Connors
00:23:26for the right to battle
00:23:27the four-time defending champion
00:23:29Borg for the title.
00:23:31And this time,
00:23:32McEnroe was not intimidated
00:23:34by his opponent
00:23:35or his surroundings.
00:23:43Keep your mouth shut out here.
00:23:45It wasn't like he was
00:23:47playing some guy
00:23:48that you never heard of.
00:23:51And the final pairing
00:23:52was established.
00:23:53Top seed Bjorn Borg
00:23:54against number two seed
00:23:56John McEnroe.
00:23:57He had to beat Connors
00:23:58to get to Borg.
00:24:06This is live.
00:24:07Overcast afternoon.
00:24:09A threat of rain,
00:24:10but I think the weather
00:24:10will hold up.
00:24:12They made terrific television.
00:24:13And of course,
00:24:15Borg and McEnroe
00:24:15couldn't be topped.
00:24:17To walk on the center court
00:24:19and play the final.
00:24:21I mean,
00:24:21I looked forward
00:24:22to play John.
00:24:25I remember that this is
00:24:26where I'd always
00:24:27wanted to be.
00:24:28Listen to those boos.
00:24:29They're booing John McEnroe.
00:24:31That is astounding.
00:24:32The day before,
00:24:33he played
00:24:33the very tempestuous
00:24:35semifinal against
00:24:35Jimmy Connors,
00:24:36and the British
00:24:37probably remembered it.
00:24:38This is not exactly
00:24:39an ultimate fighting crowd
00:24:40there.
00:24:41This is center court,
00:24:42Wimbledon,
00:24:43all England club.
00:24:44They booed him.
00:24:46So what?
00:24:47That's just all the more
00:24:48incentive to shut him down.
00:24:50Support.
00:24:59Anytime you beat a guy
00:25:00as good as Bjorn Borg 6-1,
00:25:02you're thinking,
00:25:03this is too good
00:25:04to be true.
00:25:05If you don't feel
00:25:05like you're into the match,
00:25:07you need to hit
00:25:08few returns
00:25:09to tell him,
00:25:10soon I'm going to break you.
00:25:19It became apparent
00:25:21that I was in this
00:25:22major fight.
00:25:23I was going to have
00:25:23a tough time
00:25:24staying with him.
00:25:26I was so much stronger
00:25:27than him
00:25:28on the third set.
00:25:39The Swede won the third set
00:25:41convincingly.
00:25:42And then,
00:25:43a familiar feeling
00:25:44crept over center court.
00:25:46Bjorn Borg
00:25:47on the brink
00:25:48of yet another
00:25:49Wimbledon title.
00:25:50So here it is,
00:25:50championship point.
00:25:52Two up and five.
00:25:52By that stage,
00:25:54we're all thinking,
00:25:55great shot, John.
00:25:57You'll have your time.
00:25:58It's not going to be
00:25:59this afternoon.
00:26:00What time's deadlines?
00:26:03Back in line!
00:26:09Back in line!
00:26:10Back in line!
00:26:18Back in line!
00:26:23Back in line!
00:26:25No!
00:26:27John McEnroe!
00:26:28That's the championship
00:26:30away from Borg!
00:26:33I felt like
00:26:34I had to put all my focus
00:26:35into staying alive
00:26:36at that point.
00:26:37I mean,
00:26:38clearly I was on the ropes.
00:26:40But McEnroe
00:26:41managed to force
00:26:42the set to a tiebreaker.
00:26:43First to seven points
00:26:45by a two-point margin
00:26:46wins.
00:26:46And a few moments later,
00:26:49Borg,
00:26:49once again,
00:26:50was in position
00:26:51to do just that.
00:26:52This is a third
00:26:53championship point.
00:26:59Oh!
00:27:00Oh!
00:27:01They have pulled
00:27:02his shoulder
00:27:02out of the socket!
00:27:04Stretching for that one!
00:27:05And they will
00:27:06change ends again!
00:27:12No!
00:27:13Brian McEnroe says no
00:27:14and scores his first
00:27:15knockdown!
00:27:16Seven points off!
00:27:19It really had become
00:27:20like a heavyweight fight.
00:27:27There was an element
00:27:29that this kid from New York
00:27:31who'd been pissing them off
00:27:33had given them this day.
00:27:36As tired as I was,
00:27:38the electricity that I felt
00:27:40in the stats
00:27:41in that small stadium,
00:27:42that kept me going.
00:27:50No!
00:27:51No!
00:27:52No!
00:27:52No!
00:27:52No!
00:27:52No!
00:27:52No!
00:27:52No!
00:27:53No!
00:27:54No!
00:27:55No!
00:27:56No!
00:28:00No!
00:28:01hurt the other person in the way I thought it was over he hit an incredible
00:28:08shot now what now I got to get up and figure out what to do again
00:28:24facing championship point five times in that tie break and he never blinked it
00:28:29was extraordinary
00:28:42it was excruciating it was like watching somebody climb a mountain step after step so it kept on
00:28:50going
00:28:5215 off board trying to take itself to another match point
00:29:00back in the hole
00:29:20the least time I ever wanted to quit in my life was about tiebreaker
00:29:34it was the worst moment of felt as a tennis break
00:29:3918 points to 16 for Johnny McEnroe
00:29:43I mean he's got it I mean just how can you lose the match after you win a tiebreaker like
00:29:47that
00:29:49the amazing thing with Borg his face was a blank sheet of paper not a flutter of an eyelid
00:29:55I was very pissed off it felt like I was sitting there for like 10 minutes on the chair
00:30:06we did think we might be seeing something like the end of the Borg era
00:30:12I was thinking about the tiebreaker the whole first game
00:30:20this is it I got him he's going to give in
00:30:23I was still on love 30 and if John breaks me there he's going to end up winning the match
00:30:32I don't know why what happened but I started to be very relaxed in the fifth set
00:30:44and to my utter amazement he actually served even better in the fifth set
00:30:54by the time it got to be four all five all six
00:31:05he was like a fighter who just kept coming he should have been wobbled
00:31:14this was the shining example of Borg's athletic character
00:31:2315.40 two championship points
00:31:26we lose the fourth set that was the worst moment and one set
00:31:48later was my best moment in my life as a tennis player
00:31:55I was absolutely disgusted that I didn't win that match
00:31:59it was a giveaway as far as I was concerned
00:32:04thankfully it was a historical match
00:32:22as much as John likes to put out there that you know he doesn't care what anybody thinks I mean
00:32:27we all do
00:32:28and I think after that match he gained an awful lot more respect
00:32:33it wasn't just me it was both of us
00:32:37in a way I love every minute of that the fact that I can always share this with Bjorn
00:32:41that's a match I will remember the rest of my life for both me and John people coming up
00:32:48and they talk about the tiebreaker that's what people remember
00:32:53it almost became like urban legend did you hear about the tiebreaker did you see the tiebreaker and Borg McEnroe
00:33:01had been joined
00:33:04did you think at all you would lose?
00:33:07yeah I thought so actually I thought when I lost the fourth set I thought I would lose the match
00:33:11you did? yeah
00:33:13Borg climbed the mountain and planted the flag on the top of Everest that afternoon
00:33:18but knew that McEnroe wasn't going to go away
00:33:24did you get as many people talking about this match we played as I do?
00:33:30yeah all the time
00:33:31I mean are there any people that actually remember you losing that match?
00:33:35or is that just me?
00:33:37hoping
00:33:40a few weeks after Wimbledon life got even better for Borg
00:33:44he married his long time girlfriend Mariana
00:33:48then summer's end offered him a chance for the perfect finish
00:33:52a long sought U.S. Open title
00:33:55but when he reached the final and found McEnroe there again
00:33:58Borg quickly discovered his adversary's resilience had only hardened since Wimbledon
00:34:13Borg has not looked sharp
00:34:15really looked very tentative
00:34:18McEnroe took the first two sets
00:34:28and if the Borg hung in to even the match
00:34:34good!
00:34:36I bet you that a two sets to all he was thinking he was going to win his first Open
00:34:42of course I wanted to win the Open
00:34:44because it's one of the biggest tournaments in the world
00:34:56he got a little tight
00:34:57and then all of a sudden it was a different story
00:35:10that was my proudest win in the sense that I showed people that I had a lot more going for
00:35:16me than just some artistry with my racket
00:35:19that I had some toughness
00:35:21toughness
00:35:21they played 55 games in the Wimbledon final
00:35:24they played 55 games in the U.S. Open final
00:35:27and this time John gets them 6-4 in the fifth
00:35:30nothing was ever going to be the same for him after that
00:35:33and he knows that he's a part of something special
00:35:38McEnroe Borg had become the game's defining rivalry
00:35:41and as 1981 dawned
00:35:43the tennis world was only eager for more
00:35:46you have a great match between the number one and two players in the world
00:35:50but at the Masters in New York in February
00:35:52the match was interrupted
00:35:53when the world number one
00:35:56uncharacteristically lost his cool
00:35:58for him to be
00:36:00exasperated by one line call at this point of his life
00:36:02not quite sure why that happened
00:36:04what caused him to implode
00:36:06Borg is going to be defaulted in this match
00:36:08I've never seen this in my life
00:36:10while the outburst raised rare questions about the Swede's state of mind
00:36:14he was able to overcome it on his way to victory
00:36:17five months later
00:36:19they arrived back at Wimbledon with all eyes on the meeting in the final
00:36:23Borg going for a remarkable sixth consecutive title
00:36:27McEnroe still hunting for his first
00:36:29and the American didn't carry his side of the burden easily
00:36:34I made it about as difficult as possible
00:36:36not that far into the first match
00:36:40you cannot be serious
00:36:42that ball was on the line
00:36:45shock blew up
00:36:46you know my dad would say
00:36:47god damn it John do you have to do that
00:36:50the weird thing about my dad is that even though he gets mad
00:36:53he still has like a weird pride about it
00:36:56there's always that sense of why are you doing that
00:36:58but yeah go do it again
00:37:00you know stick it to him again
00:37:01you guys are the absolute pits of the world
00:37:03you know that
00:37:05we're not going to have a point taken away because this guy is an incompetent fool
00:37:08you know that
00:37:09his road through the draw was noisy and defined
00:37:12and by the semis
00:37:13it appeared the only obstacle to another birth against Borg in the final
00:37:17was his temper
00:37:19I rather hope that the semifinal because of the occasion would go nice and smoothly
00:37:26but the first incident he shouted to the heavens
00:37:30I'm screwed because there's umpires in his place
00:37:36incredible
00:37:37incredible
00:37:39it was later on
00:37:41when he looked across the court at me
00:37:43and said
00:37:46it was clearly abusive
00:37:48it wasn't obscene
00:37:49and so I gave him a penalty point
00:38:00at the time he came to me and said
00:38:02I wasn't even talking to you umpire
00:38:05I was talking to myself
00:38:06but I didn't accept this
00:38:08I'd like the referee brought out please
00:38:10before you call the score
00:38:11what did I say umpire tell me
00:38:13please tell me
00:38:16it wasn't quite as simple to dismiss me
00:38:18especially as I got better
00:38:19there's less they can do
00:38:23any goodwill McEnroe had earned the year before
00:38:25appeared to be gone
00:38:27he had fully emerged as a tennis anti-hero
00:38:30an outlaw
00:38:31whose lack of control on the court
00:38:33was eclipsing his remarkable control with the racket
00:38:37this was tennis's punk
00:38:38this was the super brat
00:38:39this was the guy who made sensational headlines
00:38:41and he figured well I better live up to my role
00:38:44somehow John
00:38:46the kid from Douglaston
00:38:47the kid from Trinity
00:38:49convinced that element
00:38:50that he'd grown up in the roughest neighborhood
00:38:52on the Lower East Side
00:38:53and it was a magnificent
00:38:56imagining of him
00:38:58punk rock is just about anger isn't it
00:39:00it's just about
00:39:01you know what
00:39:02I don't like the situation I'm in
00:39:06and it's your fault
00:39:08and John portrayed that
00:39:09quite a bit
00:39:11he had painted this great big stinking target on himself
00:39:15and it finally touched off a brawl
00:39:19a brawl that broke out improbably
00:39:22in the Wimbledon press room
00:39:24John was going out with a young tennis player named Stacy Margolin
00:39:29what finally set him off
00:39:31was another question about Stacy
00:39:34you come back just to piss me off
00:39:36you're pissing me off
00:39:37all right are you happy now
00:39:38and he storms off
00:39:40and there is now a very ugly mood in the room
00:39:44and the Americans are starting to sort of accuse the British press of having
00:39:48caught McEnroe to walk out
00:39:50Nigel Clark comes over and he starts pointing his finger in my face
00:39:55I'd been in one fight in my whole life
00:39:57it was in junior high school in a touch football
00:39:59you pointed your finger at me
00:40:01don't point your finger at me
00:40:02Clark gets up on a chair
00:40:05I had no chance to respond when he does a Greg Louganis
00:40:10I'm in a fight
00:40:12at Wimbledon
00:40:14wasn't much of a fight
00:40:16and within an hour
00:40:17it went round the world
00:40:20there was always a quality to John
00:40:23at Wimbledon
00:40:25that he was trapped behind enemy lines
00:40:27and the night before the final
00:40:29I'm talking to him on the telephone
00:40:32that was when I said I'm never coming back
00:40:33that's it
00:40:35this is too difficult
00:40:37maybe some of it's my fault but this is it
00:40:40I'm going to win tomorrow
00:40:41and then I'm never coming back here
00:40:43I said John just win the match
00:40:47McEnroe's turbulent two weeks in London
00:40:49had been the story of the tournament
00:40:51and now in the rematch of his epic final with Borg
00:40:54he controlled the narrative with his play
00:41:04all of a sudden it was Borg who realized
00:41:08that he had been turned into the counter puncher
00:41:10by this guy he'd beaten the year before
00:41:155-7 points for McEnroe
00:41:17Can he not win with that?
00:41:22He does win with that!
00:41:24Can he not win with that?
00:41:25He wanted to win Wimbledon
00:41:26he was eager and
00:41:27I mean you could see that on John
00:41:34McEnroe steps into the lead
00:41:36he wins the breakers
00:41:38He won the match quite comfortably
00:41:46He got it!
00:41:47He got it!
00:41:48He got it!
00:41:50He was the best tennis player at Wimbledon
00:41:54in spite of everything that had gone on
00:41:56and it meant to him
00:41:58all the more to be the man who beat Bjorn Borg
00:42:03You feel like you could fly
00:42:07There was this incredible relief off my shoulders
00:42:09that I'd done what I was expected to do
00:42:15I was happy for John
00:42:17He played a great match
00:42:18and of course I wanted to win the final but
00:42:22I was not disappointed
00:42:24Hello America!
00:42:26Alright, we're just going to take Bjorn first if we may
00:42:28Bjorn please, please Bjorn, Bjorn, please
00:42:31Will you win?
00:42:32I didn't have that magic feeling before the match
00:42:36It's not an excuse
00:42:38John played better
00:42:39I lost
00:42:41I wanted to show that like if a match were more than 2 or 3 hours
00:42:44that the other guy had a chance of winning against him
00:42:45He was the king now
00:42:46The king is dead, long live the king
00:42:49Two months later came act 4
00:42:52another major final at the U.S. Open
00:42:54and another indelible sign of a shift underway
00:42:58He was actually beating me
00:43:00It was a sad all
00:43:02and he got up 4-2 in the third
00:43:05And McEnroe just crushes him
00:43:09Barely aggressive backhand passing shot
00:43:12McEnroe saying
00:43:13Whatever you do today
00:43:15I will have an answer for it
00:43:24It basically looked like he gave up
00:43:27Which I had never seen him do before
00:43:30There was a look on Bjorn's face which was
00:43:33This is over
00:43:34This guy is better than me
00:43:37Well
00:43:40Game set and championship
00:43:44We shook hands
00:43:45I didn't want to even act like I was that happy
00:43:49Because something weird seemed to be happening
00:43:51I was like, what happened?
00:43:52John McEnroe Jr. is the United States Open champion
00:43:56And leaves little doubt about who's number one
00:44:00It was the opposite of the buzz that there was at these other matches
00:44:04And I didn't know what to make of it
00:44:07And they're about to start the ceremony
00:44:09And then he's
00:44:10Where is he?
00:44:15I can't recall a major where the guy just splits
00:44:20Before the ceremony
00:44:22But it was Bjorn
00:44:23We are certain he is unable to be here
00:44:26To receive the runner-up award
00:44:29Which...
00:44:31I remember being with a group of reporters
00:44:34Who chased Borg out of the stadium
00:44:37Won't you say something, Bjorn?
00:44:39Nothing
00:44:39Rolled up the windows and was gone
00:44:42The only people
00:44:44Who knew
00:44:45That I'm gonna step away from the tennis
00:44:48Was my parents
00:44:49And Leonard
00:44:51My parents said, we support you whatever you want
00:44:55We started to discuss this in February 1981
00:45:00After the Masters in the Madison Square Garden
00:45:03I lost that edge because
00:45:05I could not have another life outside the tennis
00:45:08I was so fed up with everything
00:45:10I mean, 25 years old
00:45:12And he's fed up with the tennis
00:45:15And then I thought, from 15 years old
00:45:18With training, hotel, traveling
00:45:21I mean, in 10 years
00:45:22I can understand him
00:45:24He's tired
00:45:26So we played tournaments
00:45:27But I didn't enjoy it
00:45:29I won the French Open
00:45:31After Wimbledon
00:45:33Came over to the States
00:45:34For the US Open
00:45:35I know that this is gonna be my last Grand Slam tournament
00:45:41After the match
00:45:42I went straight off the court
00:45:44To the car and we drove away
00:45:46So straight to the house
00:45:48And jumped in the pool
00:45:50Felt good, felt really good
00:45:52I was feeling relief
00:45:55That this is done now
00:45:59John, should I ask you about 4th retirement?
00:46:03You just retired an hour ago
00:46:06Did you hear that you retired?
00:46:08That made absolutely no sense whatsoever to me
00:46:13None
00:46:14So we're like, listen now
00:46:16We're not smart enough to do anything else
00:46:19What else are we gonna do?
00:46:22But the motivation to win was not there
00:46:26If someone explained me
00:46:28Why?
00:46:29I would be very grateful
00:46:32Maybe he wanted to experience other parts of life
00:46:35Maybe he was pissed that he was losing to me
00:46:38I've asked him many times
00:46:39I think he wants to give a fair answer
00:46:42But he hasn't come up with one
00:46:44Yet
00:46:46I don't think so
00:46:48That big tiebreaker match
00:46:50Really helped drive
00:46:51What already was this emerging theme
00:46:52Of the hunter and the hunted
00:46:53John appeared to make the statement
00:46:56That yes, I am the hunter
00:46:58And you better watch your back
00:46:59You could certainly make the argument
00:47:01That if Bjorn had won the US Open
00:47:03In 80 or 81
00:47:04That he would have played a few more years
00:47:07I think
00:47:08John was the last draw
00:47:10For Borg
00:47:11No, he did not drive me out from tennis
00:47:14I'm not that kind of a person
00:47:16I take some beatings
00:47:17And then you leave the game
00:47:19That's not me as a person
00:47:20I think it's too bad for the game
00:47:22And it's too bad for me
00:47:23Because my best tennis has been against him
00:47:24I think he regretted it
00:47:28God
00:47:29I don't
00:47:34He's too stubborn to admit that he regretted it
00:47:36I was tired
00:47:38I did my part
00:47:40Now my next life starts
00:47:43For McEnroe, that was the day the music died
00:48:00Every time I'd see him
00:48:01Which wasn't that often in 82, 3, 4
00:48:05When are you coming back?
00:48:06Okay, we need you here
00:48:07I need you
00:48:08Answer my question
00:48:10The question, jerk
00:48:12I'm just trying to make some sense
00:48:17In 83, John asked me to take care of his press
00:48:24And I said
00:48:26Not a chance
00:48:29He was sort of bereft by the fact that Borg had denied him
00:48:32You know, the great rivalry that they could have had
00:48:34We wouldn't look at there
00:48:38I just could have a trip
00:48:46I thought it hopefully passed
00:48:53But that was a while
00:49:03With me
00:49:04it's very hard john was so insanely mozart-like gifted but at the end of the day
00:49:14on two more wimbledons in 1983 and 84 but a month after winning the 84 u.s open he began
00:49:21a whirlwind romance with actress katem o'neill i was feeling a little empty about what was
00:49:26happening on the court so i was sort of looking for something else john got his head turned i
00:49:30think by hollywood suddenly the world was sort of laid out for him said look you can be anything
00:49:34you want by the end of 1985 he had lost not only his number one ranking but his desire to
00:49:40reclaim it
00:49:41a predicament he knew one person would understand better than anyone else i thought god i'm so burnt
00:49:48out i've got to accept defeat in a way but i go hey i'm still number two in the world
00:49:53that's not that
00:49:54bad he looked at me like i was absolutely wrong if you're number two and you enjoy playing tennis
00:50:00then there's no problem with that but to be the best in the world that was my achievement in life
00:50:08and that was john achievement in life too and he suggested to me that i should still be number one
00:50:15and i was like yeah maybe i could be number one while i was still asking you sure you don't
00:50:19want to come
00:50:20back but mackinroe began a sabbatical in 1986 marrying o'neill becoming a father and keeping tennis at a
00:50:28distance my parents were like you're not going to quit are you just like bjorn i think he thought
00:50:33there was more out there you know he thought life could be different when i stepped away from the
00:50:45game i could be more like a private person but then after x number of years you want to do
00:50:51something
00:50:52but borg's attempt to reinvent himself in the fashion world ended in bankruptcy and his personal
00:50:58life became tabloid fodder with a pair of divorces a child custody battle with a young model and in
00:51:051989 the most alarming headline of all when he was rushed to a milan hospital for overdosing on sleeping
00:51:12pills and questions were raised at the time was it an accident or had it been a failed suicide bid
00:51:19it was an accident the food poison accident the life outside the sports is a completely different
00:51:26life i had to learn it in the hallway i took a few sleeping pills just to sleep because i
00:51:32was not
00:51:32feeling good so i went to the hospital for uh for one hour and then i walked out feeling great
00:51:38i was
00:51:39lucky in the way that i was learning things good and bad things but still i was learning something
00:51:46so that's a very positive thing
00:51:54for a decade borg struggled with the unfamiliarity of life without tennis
00:52:00and then in the spring of 1991 when he had last decided to return to what he knew best
00:52:06the technology he brought with him was long outdated i thought that was insane that he was
00:52:12playing with the wood racket i automatically was what are you doing all this sense of expectation
00:52:18had created a phenomenal amount of energy it was like a giant balloon at that place and then bjorn
00:52:23goes out and he starts hitting balls and you could almost hear the air coming out of the balloon
00:52:30when i watched this on the television i said no bjorn bjorn go away from the court
00:52:42it's like okay i just want to play tennis but then i played maybe 10 or 12 tournaments i didn't
00:52:49win one
00:52:49match he waited too long 10 years is too much even if you're bjorn bored
00:52:58all those years i went through it was like searching for something and i thought everything's gonna
00:53:05be good and we're not so good while that search went on for years his rivals break from the game
00:53:12lasted eight months and when mackenroe returned from his 1986 hiatus his resolve was tinged with
00:53:19resignation what else was i going to do the same argument i made with bjorn was the one that i
00:53:25would
00:53:25say to myself you got something better in mind i'm still getting overpaid to do this
00:53:32he was never really quite the same when he came back i do believe the second act of john mackenroe's
00:53:39professional career was a profound disappointment john never won another major after the age of 25.
00:53:46i was utterly convinced i would be a better player at 28 than i would be at 25. that didn't
00:53:51happen
00:53:51i can't believe that that bothers me it pisses me off by 1992 his career was ending as was his
00:54:00marriage i had a tough time for a while to suddenly have that all sort of dissipate particularly when it
00:54:06coincided with the end of my career he was pouring so much emotion into the matches he was in tears
00:54:14and i
00:54:15never seen my brother crying it got so bad that at some stage my son who was six was like
00:54:21dad you
00:54:21got to get your act together you gotta stop crying ultimately both men found a measure of comfort on the
00:54:28court together in the early 90s a new senior tour was started and both mackenroe and borg joined up and
00:54:36that's exactly it was the perfect fit john came in that was a great thing for me not only did
00:54:42it help him
00:54:43help me being around my great rivals he used to always say oh i'll never play senior tennis
00:54:51to sort of do things and appreciate things in a different way and i think we've both done that
00:54:57it's almost like it was hard to admit how much tennis meant to him now it's more part of his
00:55:04life than
00:55:04ever you know where do i put the pictures that i wanted to show you oh here they are over
00:55:10here
00:55:10that's at our wedding bjorn and i hit the bachelor party you know i got that beard look bjorn he
00:55:17hadn't
00:55:17shaven in a couple days himself in 1997 mackenroe made borg a groomsman when he married for a second
00:55:25time to singer patty smite the punk rocker has morphed into robert young in some old father knows best
00:55:31sicker while borg found personal peace as well he continued to keep tennis at a distance a choice
00:55:39that was apparent in 2006 when he put his trophy collection up for sale wherever i lived i don't
00:55:45have one trophy i don't have anything that reflects tennis i hate that i thought it's not going to be
00:55:52such a big thing to sell my trophies i decided to auction them off we suddenly saw in an auction
00:56:01house
00:56:01here in london that his wimbledon trophies were up for sale everybody thought well is this really how
00:56:10low the man's life has fallen people was calling all the time john was calling me a few times and
00:56:17asked what the hell i was doing a part of me is worried like is does he have some sort
00:56:22of financial
00:56:22problem and it just opens the door for people talking about stuff whether or not it is true
00:56:27no i did not need the money no but it became a big thing around the world i just don't
00:56:34like to see
00:56:34him look bad and people take pot shots at him it could go way back to when i felt like
00:56:40he took me under
00:56:41his wing at a very young age i said if you're really actually going to sell them make sure i
00:56:46get the
00:56:471981 because i should have had that one that was a stupid decision i took i bought the back for
00:56:55a
00:56:55higher price i have him home now in the safe place that's probably the worst business deal i ever made
00:57:05now the bjornborg clothing line it's been very very successful
00:57:10we have a competition to see who has the best design underwear i think i'm gonna win though
00:57:19i wouldn't say that he's at total peace but i think he's peaceful most of the time um similar to
00:57:27sort of where i'm at i would doubt my kids or my wife would say i was at total peace
00:57:32god dad you're so
00:57:34annoying i must say this extra day i believe is going to greatly enhance the quality of this
00:57:40mass giving i think john has very difficult to sit still he needs to do something all the time
00:57:46every time i look to them i get tired i have no problem whatsoever to sit still and just say
00:57:52oh this
00:57:52is the great life i cannot see that person do whatever he did on the tennis court because i cannot
00:58:00understand that person for me today it feels like it was another life 15 40 two championship points
00:58:26they will always share it a place on their game's greatest stage a tennis legend that will never be
00:58:34forgotten it was only a few brief years that john mackenroe and bjornborg played their best tennis
00:58:41against against each other neither won a major title after the age of 25. they left behind a vision
00:58:48of contrasting brilliance that their sport has continued to hold on to and the men themselves have
00:58:56never let go of if he had broke me the first game in the fifth set then you probably won
00:59:02the match
00:59:04but you didn't just being around bjorn and the matches we had lifted me as a player and as a
00:59:12person
00:59:27we know each other me and john very well because we are two rebels we're going to do it in
00:59:33this way
00:59:34our own way john is always going to mean something deep inside my heart
00:59:40i'm not the sentimental type but there were a few times he called me
00:59:46he'd say like i love you man i'd get off the phone and i'd say patty
00:59:51i talked to bjorn and he said he loved me did you say you loved him back
00:59:57you know so um i've managed to get to that point where i can say it back
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