Word: borg
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...Wimbledon, his best performance to date. Despite torrential rains, a transit strike and a hectic schedule which forced him to play every day of the tourney's week. Mayotte made history in London last year, becoming one of the four players--a group that includes the likes of McEnroe. Borg, and Conners--to make it to the Wimbledon semis by age 21 McEnroe ended Mayotte's championship hopes last year, but not his spirits. The Springfield native returns to London next month to try again...
...prime he tucked away six French Open championships, five consecutive Wimbledon titles and two Italian Opens, scampering across grass and clay with an iron reserve that unsettled opponents and turned everyone else into admirers. But two months ago Bjorn Borg announced that the thrill had gone, and last week in Monaco he played his final tournament. In the first round, facing José-Luis Clerc, 24, Borg bobbed along the baseline like the champion of yore, putting the Argentine away in 77 minutes, 6-1, 6-3. But the next day, against Frenchman Henri Leconte, 19, Borg went down...
...Open, played in New York, is the tournament that has flapped the most in the changing wind that has howled through tennis even in Borg's short time. The Open moved from romantic Forest Hills to gray Flushing Meadow; tennis went from the country club to the public park. An illustration of the flux: Connors has won the U.S. title on three different surfaces - grass, clay and cement. Borg and the Open championship would have distinguished each other, but the oversight seems small. He belongs with Tilden, Budge and Laver...
...Although Borg grew up on clay, Centre Court at Wimbledon will al ways seem his turf, and the unfading memory will be of Borg losing the 34-point tiebreaker to McEnroe in 1980, then winning the four-hour match in the fifth set. Anyway, it may have been just as well that he did not win at Flushing Meadow. On Wimbledon's lawn, Borg customarily dropped to his knees at the instant of victory. On cement, neither Stenmark nor Borg could have taken much of that...
...should be added that Borg always hopped up from the grass quickly, because he will be missed for his grace here too. Posturing in sport to day has become almost a sport itself. Like a man beholding his first sunset, baseball's Reggie Jackson stands and admires every home run. After sacking the quarterback, football's Mark Gastineau removes himself to a clearing and makes muscles. Borg, who had "the right kind of courage," as Bergelin once said, never pointed to himself. He never even seemed to care if anyone read the advertisements. - By Tom Callahan