Bjorn Borg reached the U.S. Open final four times, but he never won.

By Peter Bodo
Photo by Michael Cole

Bjorn Borg had enough chances to win at the U.S. Open to make it impossible for even the most sympathetic of critics to admit that somewhere on the long and dusty trail, he just plain blew it. This argument assumes extra pungency when you realize that in 1975, the USTA conducted an ill-fated experiment at Forest Hills, forcing the West Side Tennis Club (then the host of the U.S. Open) to rip up its sod and lay down clay courts—yes, you read that right, clay—made of the slightly quicker, green Har-Tru popular in the U.S.

The first of those years was 1975 B.C. (Before Confidence: Borg lived under Jimmy Connors’ thumb until the spring of 1976), which explains why Connors so easily hammered the fresh-faced 18-year-old Swede who, just a few months earlier, had won the biggest of all clay titles at the French Open. Jimbo took Bjorn out in three sets, 5, 5, and 5.

The following year, 1976, was a great yardstick for two things: Borg’s rapid progress and Connors’ unyielding spirit. In what may have been the best four-set final in Open era history, Connors and Borg played an excruciatingly tight, bitterly fought match in the old concrete horseshoe of the West Side Tennis Club. Jimbo once again prevailed, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (11-9), 6-4; most witnesses felt it all came down to the tiebreaker. Within months, Borg would turn the tables on the rivalry.

When Connors and Borg next met in a U.S. Open match, in 1978, Borg had largely been transformed into the hunter, while Connors was the hunted almost everywhere—everywhere, that is, but in the Connors-friendly confines of the brand new National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Although Borg won the Italian and French Opens and Wimbledon, he was annihilated in the first U.S. Open final played in a public park, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, in what remains the quintessential display of Connors’ ferocity and aggression.

In 1980, John McEnroe and Borg played the Tiebreaker Heard ’Round the World, at Wimbledon, the significance of which was that McEnroe officially arrived to transform the struggle for ascendancy into a three-way battle. He met Borg in the final at the NTC. Borg, the seasoned veteran, appeared to have the upper hand as they staggered into the fifth set of a match that was more bitterly than artfully fought, but it was McEnroe who prevailed, 6-4 in the fifth, after 4 hours and 13 minutes.

By 1981, McEnroe was hitting his stride as a champion and Borg, while still just 24, was growing discontented with the demands of his career. Yet in the semifinals, Borg blew up Connors in straights, serving so well that it looked like he could even handle Mac at his best. But after jumping out to a one-set lead, Borg turned curiously dispirited and lost the next three sets. He left the grounds shortly after the match and would never be a factor in tournament tennis again.