Nostalgia took a detour. In the shadow of the RFK Bridge, where three boroughs converge, two legends collided.
Playing in World TeamTennis at the Randall’s Island Tennis Center last night, John McEnroe, 52, and Bjorn Borg, 55, resumed their illustrious rivalry, with McEnroe playing in his regular spot on the New York Sportimes and Borg filling in for an injured Jimmy Connors on the Philadelphia Freedom.
The results didn’t matter, though McEnroe did win 5-4 (5-3) in a WTT specially scored set and tiebreaker. Each game was sentimental, each point savored, each shot filled with subtext.
Though play was slowed, grayed and tamed, the presence of greatness was evident. It was still McEnroe and Borg.
“I think it’s appropriate. That’s the way it should be,” McEnroe said of the back-and-forth affair. “It’s great to be with him and to get some buzz back into the sport.”
With the grass of Wimbledon replaced by a multi-colored court and the frenzied fanatics of Flushing substituted with an intimate setting, the nearly 2,500 in attendance were just happy to be there.
And they weren’t the only ones.
“Bjorn would be my No. 1 choice [to play], obviously,” McEnroe said. “I have so much respect for him. No one can take away what we had together in the past. I’m even prouder now.”
Borg, who was playing his first WTT match in 17 years, said, “For me it’s always a special thing, not only to play him, but to see him. It’s a great feeling, and it brings back nice memories what we did for tennis.”
Sept. 13 marks the 30th anniversary of their last professional match, the 1981 U.S. Open final, Borg’s swan song before leaving the game at the age of 25. His sudden retirement allowed only 14 meetings between them, split evenly, beginning in Borg’s native Sweden in 1978.
Borg walked away with 11 grand-slam titles, comprised of six straight French Opens and five consecutive Wimbledons. He made four U.S. Open finals, losing each time, twice to McEnroe.
McEnroe claimed seven grand-slam singles titles (plus 10 in doubles), defeating Borg in three of four grand-slam finals, the lone loss coming in their most memorable match, Borg’s victory at Wimbledon in 1980, (1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (18-16), 8-6).
The celebrated, yet relatively short rivalry left far too many points unplayed.
“I don’t have any regrets,” Borg said of his then-shocking retirement. “The only regret I had, maybe, was that I would’ve wanted to play John a few more times, given our great rivalry. All the matches we had were great matches. [He] was the biggest thing for me in tennis.”
As well as their styles of play contrasted, their personalities, and appearances, were just as magnetic. McEnroe embodied the loud-mouthed New Yorker, sporting uncontrollable curls, while Borg displayed an even temper and the long hair of a blond Nordic god.
No matter that three decades have slowly eroded the skills of the world’s two best tennis players. Time has done nothing to diminish a rivalry for the ages; a rivalry at any age.
“I’m proud of it and John’s proud of it,” Borg said. “We lifted tennis to a different level, helped it get to the level it is today.”
