Borg Björn - Epic: John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and the greatest season in tennis ever

Copyright 2011 by Matthew Cronin. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Cronin, Matthew.
Epic : John McEnroe, Bjrn Borg, and the greatest tennis season ever / Matthew Cronin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-19062-3 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-01595-7;
ISBN 978-1-118-01596-4; ISBN 978-1-118-01597-1
1. McEnroe, John, 1959 2. Borg, Bjrn, 1956 3. Tennis playersUnited StatesBiography. 4. Tennis playersSwedenBiography. 5. Wimbledon Championships (1980) 6. U.S. Open (Tennis tournament) (1980) I. Title.
GV994.A1C76 2011
796.3420922dc22
[B]
2010048272

To my father, Dr. William T. Cronin, 19331999, who taught me the value of serve and volleying and chip and charging, both on court and in life. Without his and my mother Joans love of the sport, I would never have gotten as hooked on tennis as I did in 1980.

Acknowledgments

Writing this book has been a long and interesting process, as its not only the first time that Ive written one, but also the first time that Ive had to write a long tome about a sport that Ive been covering for the past eighteen years and not actually been in the press rooms at tournaments around the globe with my pen poised. What was most pleasurable was going back to 1980, a summer that I recall very wellthe season I graduated from high school and visited Europe for the first time. I was as deeply enchanted with tennis then as I am now, but then I was merely a wild junior player who would come off the courts dripping thick New England sweat ready to discuss the eras greatest rivalry, Borg versus McEnroe.

I clearly recall that my Connecticut hometown, filled with tennis players as it was immersed in the tennis boom, literally stopped so that everyone could sit in front of their TVs and cheer during the Borg-McEnroe Wimbledon final. I also recall returning from Europe in late August, making my annual trek as a fan to the U.S. Open, and getting a look at the superintense McEnroe and the cool-handed Borg and literally praying that they would reach another Grand Slam final that summer. They did and put on a spectacle that is nearly equal in quality and drama to that of their more historically noted Wimbledon clash.

Some thirty years later as I write this, Im thinking about how many people of my generation have come up to me to ask whether I miss tenniss old days, when great rivalries were compelling and you could really relate to the personalities. While I understand this train of thought, Im so involved with the modern game and with its often thrilling personalities and various styles that Im usually a bit taken aback by that perspective. But what I will sayand Ive covered plenty of amazing summers of tennis since 1992is that no two men have ever offered such a stark and invigorating contrast as McEnroe and Borg, which is why, to so many folks who lived through that brilliant summer, those two stand alone. When it comes to conjuring up memories of what made tennis so inviting to people who grew up in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, its the classic clashes of the New Yorker and the Swede that first come to mind.

I spoke to so many people for and about this book that it would be too long a list to mention them all. Id like to thank everyone who spoke to me on the record or on background, and, of course, everyone who helped me with the actual process. Many friends in the tennis world have offered support in one way or another, and first off, I would like to thank all my colleagues in the International Tennis Writers Association, who, more than the players, have kept me loving the game with their wit and wisdom.

Some special thanks must go out to writers Richard Deitsch, Scott Price, Joel Drucker, Andrew Friedman, Sandy Harwitt, Ron Cioffi, Jon Wertheim, Chris Clarey, Pete Bodo, Steve Tignor, Bud Collins, Alix Ramsey, Eleanor Preston, Cindy Schmerler, Richard Osborn, Bill Simons, Bonnie Ford, Richard Evans, Brad Falkner, Steve Flink, Howard Fendrich, Doug Robson, Chris Bowers, and Lisa Dillman. I also want to thank my great buddies Tim Corridon and John Nielsen, who listened to me gripe again and again in my down hours.

This book would be nowhere without the patience and always jolly support of my agent Bob Shuman, who could teach more than a few tennis players about the importance of staying positive, as well as Peter Rubie of FinePrint Literary Management.

Stephen Power, my editor at John Wiley & Sons, Inc., exhibited a huge amount of patience with the project and had the concept nailed down from the get-go.

Two men helped close this project out and spent a huge amount of time on it: the accomplished author Paul Robert Walker gave this book a hard, appropriate, and excellent edit; and my friend Tom Tebbutt, the longtime tennis correspondent for the Globe and Mail , picked out many unforced tennis writing errors.

Not everyone can say that they come from a fabulous nuclear family of tennis lovers, but I can, and my mom, Joan Rezzonico Cronin; my brothers, Mark and Paul; and sisters, Tami and Megan, have always lent me their ears.

Ive been quite fortunate to have been married to Patti Orozco since 1991 and to consider her side of the family to be my own. Patti and our kids, Cassandra, Connor, and Chiara, had to watch me toil writing this book while working full time on other things, and they were simply heroic in putting up with my cursing in the wee hours of the morning or on alleged holidays. It was worth it to me and I hope to everyone else.