Borg McEnroe #1

In September 2018, I watched Borg McEnroe at Toho Cinemas Nagareyama Ootakanomori for the first time, which was because I got interested in the movie after I knew that Naomi Osaka won the 2018 U.S. Open tennis tournament. 

In May 2020, I watched it again on DVD.

The film focuses on the final of the Wimbledon tournament in 1980 between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. Then it elaborately describes what each player was like.

I like this story about Steffi Graf. A guy shouted out from the stand to Graf playing against Kimiko Date, "Steffi, will you marry me?" and then the German player shouted back, "How much money do you have?" in the semifinal of the 1996 Wimbledon tournament. I also was happy to watch the live footage where the 17-year-old Maria Sharaova was smiling and trying to call someone using her cellphone on the tennis court in front of the audience after she beat Serena Williams and won the 2004 Wimbledon tournament. Although I am not a big fan of tennis, yet I like such stories, so the movie was enjoyable and entertained me a lot. Tennis fans must have gotten absorbed in it.

I had known that McEnroe had rivaled Borg. I also had done that the American player was hot-tempered and had sometimes shouted abusive language against the umpires during matches. I, however, had not known that the Swedish player used to spit out curses playing tennis when he was young. It surprised me a little because I had thought of Borg as a goody-goody. Then, before first watching it, I expected that the movie focused on the rivalry between them, but it spotlighted Borg far more than McEnroe. I was kind of disappointed by that because I had been more interested in and wanted to watch the naughty McEnroe than Borg looking just handsome. It could not be helped because it is a Swedish film. The anguish of the good-looking man impressed me that much, though. I hope that Americans will produce a movie about John McEnroe someday.