August 7, 2007
Bjorn Borg showed that he had lost none of the fitness, talent and fighting spirit that took him to eleven Grand Slam titles, when he made a successful return to the BlackRock Tour of Champions in the Algarve, Portugal on Tuesday.
The 51-year-old Swede came from a set down to defeat fellow former French Open winner Andres Gomez, 6-7(4), 6-3, 10-8 (on a Champions’ Tie-Break) and win his opening round-robin contest. It was the first match Borg had played on the BlackRock Tour of Champions for six years.
“I’m really pleased,” he said, afterwards.
“I came back first of all because I wanted to play matches against these guys again, but when you walk on the court the thing you want to do the most, even now, is to win. That’s why you are there really. It’s not the end of the world if you lose any more but I still don’t like to lose. To win my first match back on the BlackRock Tour is a big satisfaction.”
It took a while for Borg to find his range in front of a large crowd, and he admitted that he had had a few doubts beforehand.
“I was a little bit unsure how I would play because, even after all these years of playing tennis, it’s a long time since I played with an umpire, ball-kids and a crowd, and it takes a while to get used to it. Around the middle of the first set I started to feel more confident,” he said.
He pushed Gomez to a first set Tie-Break, but lost it 7-4.
In the second set there were flashes of vintage Borg. He regularly used the pace of the Gomez ground strokes to counter-attack with pinpoint accuracy from the baseline.
The better he got, the more the crowd willed him on, and after levelling at one set all, he squeezed through 10-8 in the deciding set Champions’ Tie-Break.
He will now meet another former French Open champion – Thomas Muster – in his second group match on Wednesday. Muster suffered a surprise 6-3, 6-4 loss against BlackRock debutante Fernando Meligeni.
Muster is more than ten years younger than Borg, but the Swede is looking forward to the challenge of facing the Austrian.
“He’s like a junior compared to me,” joked Borg. “But I’m looking forward to playing him. He’s a great player.”
The impact that Borg has on people off the court is still as intoxicating as ever.
When he arrived for the pre-tournament cocktail party in the afternoon, it was as if an alien life-form had wandered into the room. Swathes of photographers, journalists and sponsors suddenly forgot about whatever else they were doing, turned, and gawped at him, open-mouthed. After a few seconds, they gathered themselves and started to frantically take pictures, ask him questions and plead for his autograph.
Clearly relaxed and at ease in the company of his wife, Patricia, and four-year-old son, Leo, Borg satisfied every request with a smile.
Elsewhere on day one, Cedric Pioline saw off the challenge of Belfast champion Anders Jarryd 7-5, 1-6, 10-7 (Champions’ Tie-Break), and the No.1 player in the South African Airways Champions Tour Rankings – Sergi Bruguera – overcame Nuno Marques 6-4, 6-3.
After the Algarve, the Tour will move to Graz the following week, with Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Cash set to join Muster, Bruguera and Michael Stich.
Following those events, the Tour will visit Paris, Eindhoven, Liege and Frankfurt before arriving in London for the BlackRock Masters Tennis.
GROUP A
Matches won/lost (sets)
Fernando Meligeni 1-0 (2-0)
Bjorn Borg 1-0 (2-1)
Andres Gomez 0-1 (1-2)
Thomas Muster 0-1 (0-2
GROUP B
Matches won/lost (sets)
Sergi Bruguera 1-0 (2-0)
Cedric Pioline 1-0 (2-1)
Anders Jarryd 0-1 (1-2)
Nuno Marques 0-1 (0-2)
SCHEDULE
Wednesday 8th August
At 5pm
Andres Gomez vs. Fernando Meligeni
Sergi Bruguera vs. Cedric Pioline
Not before 8.45pm
Anders Jarryd vs. Nuno Marques
Bjorn Borg vs. Thomas Muster
