A look backTennis This article is more than 8 years oldFrom the Observer archive, 3 June 1973: a star is Björn
This article is more than 8 years oldThe Swedish player’s first year on the professional tennis circuit is greeted with excitementBjörn Borg is the best junior tennis player in the world today. The play of this Swedish boy, aged 16, has been one bright spot in the wettest and most soul-destroying French tennis championships in memory. Yesterday, Borg went out in his rain-interrupted men’s singles quarter-final against Adriano Panatta, but left in his wake an impressive list of victims.
Björn holds the Orange Bowl Cup, played in Florida, and is generally accepted as the Under-18 world champion: he won the junior invitation event at Wimbledon, beating Buster Mottram in a three-set final last year, and he has played the Davis Cup for Sweden since he was 15.
An impressive record for a boy who might never have played tennis at all if it had not been for a lucky raffle ticket. When Björn was nine years old, his father, a clothing salesman in Södertälje, won a draw at his local table tennis club. The prize was a tennis racket, which he gave to his only child.
Björn, an outstanding ice hockey player from the age of five, decided to play tennis as well and took to it very easily. However the heavy weight of the prize racket made him use two hands to hit his backhand over the net. Today, he still uses two hands, but he releases his left hand on the handle earlier than most double-handed players. His main weapon is a fierce right-handed forehand drive, played with top spin.
By the time he was 12 Björn joined the Salk Club in Stockholm. Here, he came under his coach, Percy Rosberg. Together, they worked hard on Björn’s comparatively weaker serve and volleying. Soon afterwards, Björn won Sweden’s biggest junior event. This brought him to the notice of the Swedish tennis association, and in particular Lennart Bergelin, French doubles champion in 1948, who has been a considerable influence on Borg.
Björn does not drink or smoke, and has no special girlfriend. He has a good relationship with his association and they regard him as a prodigal son. He does not seem likely to fail them. Now he has left school, given up ice hockey and is dedicated to making a success of his career. Wimbledon, where he plays in the senior event for the first time this year, is the championship he would like to win most. Grass courts present a special problem for him as his stroke technique is not best suited to shots that tend to keep low and shoot, but he likes the atmosphere of big crowds.
He has responded well to the Paris centre court and the vociferous French crowd, who love him dearly. His attraction must be because of his youth and the fact his build makes him look frail and vulnerable – when he is neither. He is very much a person of today – confident in going his own way, doing his own thing and succeeding rather better than his elders.
This is an edited extract
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