Björn Borg is a Swedish former tennis player who is widely considered as one of the best tennis players in history. He won six French Open and five Wimbledon singles titles. He was the only player to have won both the French Open and the Wimbledon in the open era in the same year. He won the Wimbledon championship for five consecutive years between 1976-1980 and the French Open four consecutive years between 1978-1981.
His fascination with tennis began when his father won a golden racquet at a table tennis championship and gave it to him. A short time after that, Borg’s tennis career began to progress non-stop. He became the youngest player earning the Davis Cup and the Wimbledon junior tennis title simultaneously. In the early 70’s, this player from Sweden reached the top level singles in the Italian open and earned the French Open Grand Slam title as well.
In 1981 Wimbledon, Borg earned his victory at the All England Club with 41 matches. But he was defeated by McEnroe at the semi-finals. By the end of the same year, the Swedish player suffered breakdown. He only competed with Yannick Noah in 1982 and lost in the quarterfinals. The next year, he publicly announced his intention to retire, which shocked the whole world.
After his retirement, he experienced a heartbreaking drug overdose. There were rumors that he tried to commit suicide though there were no confirmations regarding the incident. His relationship with his wife, Loredana Bertè, an Italian singer, was on the rocks as well.
Despite Borg’s unfavorable ordeal, he went public and successful as the owner of a self-named fashion label Björn Borg. He attempted to go back to competing tennis tournaments using his old wooden racquet but was quite unsuccessful at this time. He lost a match at the Monte Carlo Open to Jordi Arresse. After a series of tennis matches he retired from the tour permanently.