July 5, 1980: Borg vs. McEnroe

July 5, 1980: The Men's Singles Final is held at Centre Court at the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships, a.k.a. Wimbledon. It may have been the greatest final ever contested at a major championship.

Björn Borg was a 24-year-old Swede. He had won Wimbledon the last 4 years. He had won the French Open 5 of the last 7 years. He had not yet won the U.S. Open or the Australian Open, but he was widely regarded as the best male tennis player in the world. He seemed cold and methodical, but threw that away whenever he won Wimbledon: He would drop to his knees, pump his fists, and yell.

He also grew a beard for Wimbledon only, staying clean-shaven for other tournaments. Who's to say it didn't work? Some hockey players began to copy him, growing "Playoff beards." And his success helped make Fila, the Italian sportswear company whose tennis clothes he wore, popular around the world.

He had toyed with the other top players of the day: Americans Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe, Australians John Newcombe and Ken Rosewall, and Romanian Ilie Nastase. It seemed too easy. As the Borg, later to be a villainous civilization in the Star Trek franchise, said about themselves, "Resistnace is futile." He needed a rival on his own level.

He got one, and, personality-wise, they couldn't be more different. John McEnroe was 21, and had grown up in the Douglaston neighborhood of Queens, just 6 miles from the site of the U.S. Open. He had won that tournament the year before.

And, like Connors and "Nasty" Nastase, he threw everything he had into the sport, wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and arguing with the umpires. But he went beyond Connors and Nastase: He openly abused the umpires, earning him as many critics as fans.

Going into Wimbledon in 1980, Borg, seeded 1st, beat Ismail El Shafei of Egypt, Shlomo Glickstein of Israel, Rod Frawley of Australia, and Balázs Taróczy of Hungary, to advance to the Quarterfinals. McEnroe, seeded 2nd, beat Butch Walts of the U.S., Terry Rocavert of Australia, Tom Okker of the Netherlands, and Kevin Curren of South Africa.

In the Quarterfinals, Borg beat American Gene Mayer, McEnroe beat fellow American Peter Fleming, Connors beat fellow American Roscoe Tanner, and American Brian Gottfried beat Poland's Wojciech Fibak. In the Semfininals, Borg beat Gottfried in 4 sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 and 6-0; while McEnroe also needed 4 sets to beat Connors, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and 6-4.

The Final was set: Borg vs. McEnroe. And since McEnroe had pissed a lot of people off with his childish antics, he couldn't count on the support of a majority of Americans. It wasn't so much that millions of Americans wanted to see Borg win; it's that they wanted to see McEnroe lose, for his unsportsmanlike conduct that was tarnishing the image of American tennis, in the way that Connors' actions hadn't gone far enough to do.

McEnroe surprised everyone by winning the 1st set easily, 6-1. Borg wasn't fazed, and won the 2nd set, 7-5. Borg won the 3rd set, 6-3. Borg led the 4th set 5-4, with 2 championship points to spare, and it was beginning to look like McEnroe's great 1st set would be forgotten.

It was -- but only because of what he, himself, did in the 4th set. McEnroe recovered to deuce, and forced a tiebreaker, which went on and on: Under the rules of time: A tiebreaker had to be won by at least 2 points. McEnroe saved 5 match points, Borg 6. Finally, McEnroe won it, 18-16, and the match went to a 5th set.

Borg fell behind 0-30 in the 1st game of the 5th set. Was he lulling McEnroe into a false sense of security? He won 19 straight points. But, still, 6 games won would not be enough to win this deciding set. Finally, Borg got a shot past McEnroe, to win the 5th set, 8-6. Again, he dropped to his knees, pumped his fists, and yelled toward the heavens. The next week's cover of Sports Illustrated magazine called him "BJORN THE INVINCIBLE."

McEnroe simply fell forward and lay there, exhausted after 3 hours and 53 minutes of some of the greatest tennis that had ever been played. Like some great boxers, including Jack Dempsey, Jake La Motta, Joe Frazier and, in the years to come, Marvin Hagler, he had earned more respect in defeat than he would ever get in victory.

Maybe Borg really did give it everything he had. No one knew it at the time, but he would win only 1 more major, the 1981 French Open. McEnroe would beat him in the 1980 U.S. Open, then finally dethroned him at Wimbledon '81 -- and dropped to his knees, but bounced right back up, as he realized he was inadvertently copying his arch-rival's move. He then beat Borg at the '81 U.S. Open, a tournament Borg would never win.

McEnroe went on to win Wimbledon again in 1983, and both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1984. But that was it: While people of all ages can play tennis, at its most competitive level, it is a young person's game; and, despite the more modern success of players in their 30s like Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, most men, and especially most women, don't win much after turning 25. Borg and McEnroe each won their last major at age 24.

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July 5, 1980 was a Sunday. These games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4, but Joe Lefebvre and Bobby Murcer backed Tommy John with home runs.

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 7-5 at Shea Stadium.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 1-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. John Tudor, Bob Stanley and Tom Burgmeier combined on a 4-hit shutout to beat Jim Palmer. The only run came when Dave Stapleton's sacrifice fly scored Carl Yastrzemski in the 2nd inning.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Houston Astros at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, 8-6 and 3-2. Johnny Bench did not play in either game.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Rookie Rickey Henderson, raised in Oakland but born in Chicago, returned to go 2-for-4 with a home run, 3 RBIs, and a stolen base. Rick Langford pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Cecil Cooper hit a home run, and Robin Yount went 1-for-3. Rod Carew only appeared as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Pete Rose went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a groundout. Mike Schmidt only appeared as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett did not play.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.