Borg, Connors - Boca Raton '79 Interview

Old Times They Are Not Forgotten...

[@hangarby10]

Borg - coolest Tennis player ever.

[@normadesmond6017]

and that's a fact.

[@GMiltown]

This is awesome. So incredible to see them together. You can feel the respect the two had for each other.

[@dashoverton1963]

Borg was such an incredibly good-looking man. So handsome here.

[@antonboludo8886]

It is always great to see players with such different styles.

[@peterbrown6434]

Fantastic respect between 2 Legends,happy days they were indeed,hard to believe Borg quit big time tennis in barely 2 years time!

[@naamamarkishorekumar822]

Damn, Borg had superstar looks. Where can I get that Fila jacket????

[@user-jv9qz2bu1r]

they still make that jacket + the red one

[@eddieingalls534]

It is a pity that when Borg retired the Marvel films were not ready yet. With the look and the accent he would have made the most convincing 'Thor' ever.

[@kennethstokes5102]

Borg beat Jimmy pretty easily that day. Jimmy has a lot of pride. Classy move that he stuck around for the interview.

[@GMiltown]

Interesting to note that this match would be the first of a 10 match winning streak that Borg had against Connors.

[@normadesmond6017]

Borg was way better then Jimmy ever was. He just quit when he was 26 and Jimmy was still playing when he was 39 the US open.

[@italnsd]

@@normadesmond6017 Quitting early is not a sign of greatness, it means less love for the game. Borg was surely the better player of the two but not by that much, Jimmy prevented him from winning the US Open twice. In my view, all considered, Jimmy has given more to the game of tennis, especially for his passion that made him play at high level until he was 39

[@normadesmond6017]

@@italnsd Bjorn Borg later said he had a massive burn-out and couldn't go on anymore. Nothing to do with lover for the game. Everything to do with health problems.

[@italnsd]

@@normadesmond6017 It was not really a health problem, unless you are using the term to include some sort of psychological condition as well. In the documentary McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice, Borg motivates his retire by his unwillingness to keep subjecting himself to that hard training regime and to a new feeling he started experiencing of not caring whether he won or lost. I just simplified this, by calling it a diminished passion for what he was doing. I am not disputing that he has been one of the greatest champions in the history of the sport. But so has Jimmy Connors, and the fact that he played for so long at high level in my eyes is a plus, not a minus.

[@CHillTennisEntertainment]

Golden age of tennis!

[@colderbeer]

This is FANTASTIC....match has just ended and they are still on the court....and not being interviewed by some idiot....Tony was a former champ and could relate to their struggles etc....

[@uncletony6210]

Connors was just the "runner-up," but not only was Borg the champion AND a 3 time wimbledon champion, he was also a "three time grand slam champion." Jimmy's like, wtf?

[@colderbeer]

Connors always beat him at the US Open.....Borg NEVER won there....

[@footballexpertforthegowdal4554]

Borg beat Connors at the US Open...Semi Final 1981.

[@colderbeer]

Give us the long list of US Open Championships Borg won.....take your time, I know there's so much data to sift through.

[@jasonbrooks6562]

colderbeer. And exactly how many French opens did connors win?

[@christopherholton2738]

@@jasonbrooks6562 Borg won the French and Wimbledon 3 years in a row. No one else has ever done that. Connors certainly didn't come close to anything like that.

[@hangarby10]

Sigh…if Pat Summerall is annnouncing, then this was on network television…back when you could see most non- Grand Slam finals on any given weekend. Now it’s so hard to find any televised tennis match.

[@tenniscollector]

here my friend try this website, the tennis frontier. I been posting loads of vintage matches from that era on their video section. Check these out ! www.tennisfrontier.com/forums/video-forum.102/

[@markbrandis5684]

trabert's expertise had a bad day

[@thebiofile17]

Facing Bjorn Borg amazon books $9.99!!!!

[@mrog5481]

Did anyone else think Jimmy came off kinda classless here? "I wasn't going to just poop the ball back because that's not how I was taught"... implying that he could have won if he did just that.... just admit it Jimmy - it didn't matter what you did. You were playing against someone who was better in every facet of the game. Just man up.

[@WithBACON]

Jimmy was very classless. He was the Lance Armstrong of his day, personality-wise: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHbJhJeGr5aKqqM

[@christopherholton2738]

He was absolutely classless. Trabert had to drag it out of him to admit Borg played well. He implied that all Borg did was hit short balls.

[@antonboludo8886]

Agreed.

[@rickbruner]

Totally disagree. First, I think the word he used was "poof", not "poop". Doesn't really matter. The point is that he was not dissing Borg's game here, but simply believing in his own game - the game his mother taught him - which brought him a lot of joy. "I enjoy playing the way I was taught and that's the way I played today." In other words, he was more concerned about the quality of his strokes (i.e. hitting a "firm ball") than about winning any particular match as winning also depends on the quality of the opponent's play. I thought this was a very mature attitude. Then he goes on to say, "He (Borg) played very well today" and "you know, we've played a lot of great matches between the two of us and we're gonna play a lot more great matches as our careers go on." Where's the disrespect? While it's certainly true that Connors could be a dick at times, especially to linesmen and umpires, I did not see that side of him here (or in other interviews where reporters criticized Connors' opponent and Connors didn't take the bait).

[@lancer3412]

@@rickbruner He goes back and forth. At one point, he says he stuck out his racket and got lucky. Overall, I don\t think he comes off as very sporting in complimenting how Borg played that day. In the press conference, basically newspaper people, after the match, Borg addresses this. He says Jimmy has one weakness. He can't say that the other guy played well. Maybe not the exact quote, but something like that. It's been years since I saw it. Do a newspaper archive search and I'll guarantee you'll see it. Anyway, I always felt that this Borg quote was a direct result of his feelings about Connors' attitude during that interview. I don't recall him saying anything like that about Connors before or after this. Not that it's that inflammatory. It's nothing bu Connors or Mcenroe standards, but Borg pretty much stayed away from stuff like that.

[@antonboludo8886]

By this time Borg was consistently winning over Connors.

[@lancer3412]

No, Connors had won their last 2 matches. One was an exhibition. It was this match that started the long streak. Borg beat him 6 straight times in 1979, starting with this match.

[@antonboludo8886]

@@lancer3412 Yes. This is when Borg overtook Connors as #1 in the world, and then Connors fell to #3 after McEnroe overtook him as well.

[@llewvincent7537]

I agree - I was a huge Connors fan but Borg was now supreme at Wimbledon and Roland Garros. He had ascended to #1 in the world and had broken Jimmy's spell over him that he had been under until about 1977. He didn't lose any important match to Connors from now until he retired and even came back from 2 sets down at Wimbledon to win in 5 sets.

[@davidwimmerstedt1071]

Salty Connors!

[@100nu77]

Borg was way better then jimmy