All these years later, Bjorn Borg is getting another chance to make a proper exit.
It didn’t go great the last time around. For those not familiar with one of the more notorious tennis walk-offs, after Borg lost in the U.S. Open final against John McEnroe in 1981 – his third consecutive loss to McEnroe in a Slam final – he grabbed his bag, headed for the tunnel, barely stopped in the locker room as he grabbed his car keys, then headed to the parking lot and drove off, leaving everyone a bit baffled during the trophy ceremony as to why the finalist was not there.
And that was basically it, other than two very abbreviated comeback attempts. The 11-time Grand Slam winner never played another Grand Slam match. He was essentially done. In January 1983, at the age of 26, he retired from tennis.
He made brief (and unsuccessful) attempts at comebacks in the early 1990s, but for decades Borg was pretty much off the tennis grid. And then, finally, there he was on the sidelines once again seven years ago, coaching Team Europe in the Laver Cup, Roger Federer’s attempt to create a tennis version of the Ryder Cup. McEnroe coached Team World, which was kind of perfect.
Borg and McEnroe are stepping away from their Laver Cup roles after this year. Andre Agassi and Yannick Noah will replace them. With his final Laver Cup gig approaching this weekend in Berlin (September 20-22), Borg was motivated to grant a rare interview about his post-tennis life, the development of his son, Leo, into a pro, and what the hobnobbing with the best players of this era has meant to him.
“So beautiful,” he said during a phone interview last month while he was on vacation in Ibiza, which is about as Borg as it gets, right?
The Athletic: So many great players from your era became coaches, but you never really did, except for the Laver Cup. Why?
Borg: I never had an interest. All the travel. Sweden even asked me to be the Davis Cup captain. I said no. That was not my thing either. To be the coach of Team Europe though, I thought that was a big responsibility. And my friend Roger Federer asked me. It’s a special event in any year.
The Athletic: Why did you quit playing so young? Were you unhappy? I ask because nowadays there are a lot of unhappy players who stop at a young age and in retrospect, you sort of seem like maybe you were the canary in the coal mine.
Borg: I was very happy as a player, but the motivation was not there. If you don’t have the motivation to practice and compete every day, you can’t focus on what you do and what you need to do. I was happy, but I had no motivation and no focus. When I came back briefly, that was a different story.
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