Fire, Ice and Two Andys

Mornin'. The Battle of the Andys at Queens today ought to be an interesting battle, with obvious implications for the immediate future in SW. 19. Perhaps Murray, like Rafael Nadal, who beat him in the semis at Roland Garros, is feeling fatigued after having one of his best Euroclay spring tours. But adrenalin and enthusiasm can trump fatigue - remember when it was like that for you., Rafa?

Also, those of you in the U.S. (and anywhere else where HBO may be available) surely will be interested in the debut tonight of the documentary, McEnroe/Borg:Fire&Ice. I contributed to the production and attended the premier and after party at the Blue Water Grille  on Union Square with my wife Lisa last Tuesday, although I missed all but the last 15 minutes of the documentary because our babysitter turned up an hour late. So all I an offer as a review is Rich Pagliaro's piece, now running on our home page.

The effects of what jet lag I felt returning from Paris were easily forgotten as I watched John McEnroe's more or less stagger through a rather lengthy speech after the credits. He was practically catatonic; I half expected him to collapse into a chair in mid-sentence, so it was an awfully good effort. Later, he seemed a little more energetic and told me that - with all due respect to Roger Federer - he was a little disappointed that we didn't get a Djokovic/Nadal final.

I think you'll enjoy this documentary; I know from what I saw of it, and from contributing to it, that it's an absolutely first-rate production created by talented people who not only understood their subjects but cared about them. As Rich noted in his review, you'll learn that while Borg and McEnroe certainly are contrasting characters, their relationship was symbiotic and therefore more complex and textured than it may appear.

There's an awful lot of interest in the Borg/McEnroe rivalry these days, especially that landlmark 1980 Wimbledon final, which seems to be the hub of the interest wheel. We have my compadre Steve Tignor's High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and the Untold Story of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry, as well as Matt Cronin's Epic: John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and the Greatest Tennis Season Ever.

I wrote extensive chapters about Borg and McEnroe in my 1991 book, The Courts of Babylon: Dispatches From the Golden Age of Tennis,  which Diversion books published as an ebook recently. You can download it onto almost any reading device,including you PC.

Enjoy the Queens semis, feel free to call the matches here.

-- Pete