Word: player
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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Before Borg was old enough to get a driver's license in Sweden, his ground strokes had earned him recognition as one of the world's premier clay-court players. But his baseline style and his weak serve and volley made him a less effective player on the fast surfaces of grass and artificial outdoor and indoor courts. He caused teeny-bopper riots when he first came to Wimbledon in 1973 at age 17. But he bowed out, undone on the speedy grass...
Laver was an expert practitioner during his prime in the '60s, and nearly every how-to book on tennis has many words on the subject. But most observers think Borg has mastered topspin as has no player since French noblemen developed the game in the Middle Ages.* As a result, he plays more of that crucial space above the net than anyone in the history of the game. Says Tennis Coach Vic Braden: "Bjorn can make the ball drop so fast it will untie your shoelaces. If you want to get back far enough to take it on the bounce...
...will to keep going has helped make Borg the best tennis player of his generation. But is he the greatest of all time? No one, of course, will ever know how many Wimbledon titles Laver might have won had not the rules against professional players of that era exiled him from the tournament for five years. Nor can it be said how Fred Perry, Big Bill Tilden, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzalez and Don Budge might have fared against Borg. But the quality of his competition suggests he may be the best ever. Undoubtedly, more fine players contest tournaments today than...
...Borg is lean as a greyhound, his limbs long and supple, his shoulders almost incongruously broad. He practices at tournament speed four hours each day to keep in condition. No other player spends more time in workouts. Bergelin explains Borg's success with two gestures. First he slaps his thigh: "It's all here." Then he points to his head: "And here...
Even Borg's racquets are a notch above the norm. A strong club player will have his racquets strung to a pressure of 55 Ibs. per sq. in. Pro players, whose skill enables them to control the ball better, will gain extra power by having their strings tightened to as much as 60 to 65 per sq. in. Borg's racquets are strung to a slab-hard 80 per sq. in. The strings are under such tremendous pressure that they often snap even when they are not being used. "At night sometimes in the hotel, they'll wake...