Word: borg
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Every sports season aspires to be endless, but tennis achieves it. So a mid-life crisis at 26 is eminently understandable, though in Bjorn Borg's case, especially regrettable. The shy Swede, born just outside Stockholm, raised just outside the baseline, is a special case. First of all, his departure grants Czechoslovak Ivan Lendl and Americans John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors complete custody of the game, a dismal situation...
...Though Borg is a dulls enough fellow, in this company "dull" is appealing. Lendl is a chilly, self centered, condescending, meanspirited, arrogant man with a nice forehand. McEnroe is tennis' current, and quintessential, spoiled brat. Connors is a time-honored boor. With Borg now gone, there may be no one left to root for but the umpires...
...grader, never put a clock on the golden career but always knew precisely when it would end. "The day that Bjorn says he is going to take a shortcut and practice only two hours instead of four," said Bergelin some years ago, "then I will know it is finished." Borg's athletic skill has not run down; his ability to concentrate...
...Borg's physical gifts alone would have been enough to make him extraordinary: regular pulse rate 35, usual blood pressure 70 over 30. His countryman Ingemar Stenmark, the slalom skier, placed second to him in a European health institute's study of the strength in athletes' legs. Then there were Borg's instincts. He was fitted with enough quickness even before trophy was installed, magnified by his almost eerie eyesight. "He's a robot from outer space," was always Court Jester Ilie Nastase's hushed theory, "a Martian." But of all the elements...
Last April, Borg returned to tournaments from a five-month rest, grudgingly giving in to the game's stiff rulemakers, who require even a five-time Wimbledon champion to play his way back into grace through qualifying matches. But at Las Vegas, Borg's second stop, he abruptly lost to Dick Stockton. "Half the time, he's serving with two balls in his hand," Stockton puzzled. "How can a guy with a two-handed backhand play with a ball in his hand...