1980 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles final

1980 tennis match March 2017 Wimbledon 1980 Men's Final Saturday, 5 July 19802009 Wimbledon Compendium 77 Alan Little 978-1-899039-31-9 The Championships, Wimbledon Centre Court, All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon, London, England Peter HarveyDaily News from New York, New York on July 6, 1980 · 34 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/485382250/ 2021-06-12 Newspapers.com en 3 hours 53 minutesMalcolm Folley Borg versus McEnroe https://books.google.com/books?id=xrYWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT107 25 September 2014 Headline 978-1-4722-2580-1 107 SWE Björn Borg USA John McEnroe 1 6 7 5 6 3 616 718 8 6 1 2 1980 Wimbledon Championships 1980 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles The 1980 Wimbledon Championships Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the gentlemen's singles tournament at the 1980 Wimbledon Championships. After 3 hours and 53 minutes of play, the four-time defending champion Björn Borg defeated John McEnroe 1–6, 7–5, 6–3, 6–7(16–18), 8–6 to win the match. McEnroe saved seven championship points during the match but ultimately lost to Borg in what was regarded at the time as the greatest tennis match ever played (it would later be compared to the 2008 men's singles final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal). Match The match was eagerly awaited as not only was it a clash between the top two seeds, it was also viewed as a meeting of opposites: Borg was the Iceman, a ruthless baseliner who used his racket to probe other players' weaknesses like a surgeon wielding a scalpel. McEnroe was the Brat, a modern genius in the old-fashioned craft of serve and volley, who often gave the impression that his real opponent was the umpire, or himself, or anyone other than the person standing on the other side of the net.Douglas-Fairhurst Robert Backhanded Complements The Times Literary Supplement 5985 15 December 2017 At the start of the final, McEnroe was booed by the crowd as he entered Centre Court, because of the heated exchanges he had had with officials during his semi-final victory over Jimmy Connors. In the final's fourth-set tiebreaker that lasted 20 minutes, McEnroe saved five championship points and eventually won 18–16.https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/wimbledon_history/3742063.stm Classic Matches: Borg v McEnroe BBC Sport 31 May 2004 25 June 2010 The tie-break was later described by one reporter as "the most riveting episode in the sport's history".http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/06/SPP711KSLR.DTL The Greatest Match Ever Jenkins Bruce San Francisco Chronicle 7 July 2008 14 February 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090211000035/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2008%2F07%2F06%2FSPP711KSLR.DTL 11 February 2009 dead McEnroe, however, could not break Borg's serve in the fifth set, which the Swede won 8–6. Significance This match was called the best Wimbledon final by ESPN's countdown show "Who's Number One?" and "one of the three or four greatest sporting events in history" by ESPN English speaking personality Mike Greenberg. In 1999, it ranked #10 on ESPN's SportsCentury's Ten Greatest Games of the 20th Century."#10: 1980 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final". In ESPN SportCentury's Ten Greatest Games of the 20th Century. ABC-TV. Original Air Date: 23 May 1999. Hosted by Al Michaels."1980 Wimbledon Gentleman's Final". (1999). In ESPN SportsCentury. Michael MacCambridge, Editor. New York: Hyperion-ESPN Books. p.259. In a 2002 UK poll conducted by Channel 4, the British public voted the match #10 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest_sporting/results.html 100 Greatest Sporting Moments - Results Channel 4 10 April 2012 The New York Times tennis writer Neil Amdur wrote in 2011: "I covered the 1980 Wimbledon men’s singles final between McEnroe and Borg. Until the 2008 Nadal–Federer classic at the All England Club, the Borg–McEnroe five-setter at Wimbledon was the greatest tennis match I had ever seen, but after watching chunks of the 3:53 McEnroe–Borg final at an HBO screening, I am tempted again to reaffirm its place as the sport’s single most compelling piece of court magic".Amdur Neil McEnroe–Borg 1980: A Great Match Endures https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/sports/tennis/mcenroe-borg-1980-a-great-match-endures.html?_r=1 The New York Times 22 September 2015 See also Borg–McEnroe rivalry Borg/McEnroe (2017 film) References autocollapse 1980 Category:Björn Borg Category:John McEnroe Men's Singles final Men's Singles final