40 years ago, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe put forth a brilliant Wimbledon final
No Wimbledon this year, so here’s a look back to an epic day at Centre Court.
WIMBLEDON, England (July 5, 1980) — It was an undertaking that the editors of Tennis magazine took great pride in.
They commissioned a diverse international panel of tennis luminaries to compile a list of the greatest matches ever played, and then they whittled the findings down to an all-time Top 20 for publication in the July 1980 issue.
It’s too bad that all that hard work went for naught because with the magazine on the newsstands barely two weeks, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe made the list obsolete.
In a matter of three hours and 53 minutes on a cool but rain-free afternoon at the hallowed All England Club, Borg and McEnroe turned Wimbledon’s men’s singles final into the sport’s most unforgettable battle, and no one on that distinguished panel could have disagreed that Don Budge’s five-set victory over Germany’s Gottfried von Cramm that helped the United States advance to the finals of the 1937 Davis Cup was no longer №1.
Re-issue the ballots, please.
When it was over, and the stoic Borg had completed a 1–6, 7–5, 6–3, 6–7 (16–18), 8–6 victory over the tempestuous McEnroe, the overflow Centre Court crowd…
