Word: borg
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...When Borg was 18, tests at a Swedish sports medicine clinic showed that he had a resting heartbeat of 38 per minute, nearly half the norm. His cardiovascular capacity then was the kind found only in mature distance runners and swimmers. Says McEnroe: "He's in the best shape of anyone. He's just got a great physical build for tennis. He's thin, and he can run all day. Some guys you see panting. You never see Borg do that. You never know if he's tired." Says Vilas: "John Newcombe once claimed that Borg's arm would wear...
...Borg is lean as a greyhound, his limbs long and supple, his shoulders almost incongruously broad. He practices at tournament speed four hours each day to keep in condition. No other player spends more time in workouts. Bergelin explains Borg's success with two gestures. First he slaps his thigh: "It's all here." Then he points to his head: "And here...
Harold Solomon, ranked sixth on the pro circuit, has never beaten Borg in 14 attempts. He has a different idea about the mainsprings of Borg's success. Says Solomon: "He has this operating range that goes from about 5 or 6 ft. behind the base line to 3 or 4 ft. inside the base line, and he's like a god in there. To try to beat him in that range is almost impossible. I think he's two or three levels above everybody else. My playing him is almost like some good high school team playing the Pittsburgh Steelers...
...Even Borg's racquets are a notch above the norm. A strong club player will have his racquets strung to a pressure of 55 Ibs. per sq. in. Pro players, whose skill enables them to control the ball better, will gain extra power by having their strings tightened to as much as 60 to 65 per sq. in. Borg's racquets are strung to a slab-hard 80 per sq. in. The strings are under such tremendous pressure that they often snap even when they are not being used. "At night sometimes in the hotel, they'll wake...
...Borg says. "The strings will break, ping, ping, ping." Mike Blanchard, 73, a tennis umpire at international competitions for five decades, has seen his share of tennis players, but he has never seen racquets like Borg's: "It's like playing with a board. The ball jumps off the racquet so fast because there's no give to it. The reason other people don't do it is they can't get control. But Borg just caresses the ball...