May 25, 2024, 07:04 ET
A few years before Rafael Nadal takes all the Roland Garros records aheada Swede made the Bois de Boulogne the patio of your house.
From 1973 to 1981, Bjorn Borg was a six-time champion in Paris (with 49 victories out of 51 games) out of a total of eight participations, not counting the fact that in 1977 he did not attend to practice on hard courts in the United States.
His path began in 1974 when he was just 18 years old.. The first final won by Manuel Orantes In five sets it was a demonstration of courage and forcefulness to turn around an absolutely lost match (2-6, 6-7, 6-0, 6-1 and 6-1). He thus became the youngest player to triumph in the French tournament (later surpassed by Mats Wilander in 1982 and later Michael Chang in 1989).
In 1975 he defended his title by comfortably beating the Argentine in the final Guillermo Vilas 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4. A defeat against Adriano Panatta In 1976 he stopped that promising path. Curiously, the Italian had been her executioner in Paris years before, in 1973 (he was the only one to do so in history).
In ’77 he did not play at Roland Garros due to injury and he returned the following season with the voracity to recover what he believed was his. who had been proclaimed King of the slow courts during the previous year, Vilas succumbed to the power of the Swede in three comfortable sets. Borg swept everyone in the tournament without losing a set (in the semi ante Corrado Barazzutti gave up only one game).
In 1979 he defended his title again at Roland Garros (he defeated the Paraguayan Victor Pecci in 4 sets in the definition) and in ’80 he repeated the feat of ’78. His time in the French Open was as overwhelming as his two years before, not giving up a set on his way to the title. In the final he defeated Vitas Gerulaitis.
In 1981 he dominated again until the final where he met another young star, the Czech Ivan Lendl. He beat him 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and was able to shout 6!
This mark at Roland Garros remained an insurmountable record. until June 11, 2012 when Nadal said enough. The four consecutive victories in Paris were also equaled by the Spaniard in 2008 and there, Borg himself was in charge of giving him the trophy, the honors and the command of a new reign.
