Borg McEnroe #2

The movie Borg McEnroe has intrigued me in a relationship between the legend tennis players.

McEnroe seemed to have been just a hot-tempered player who sometimes took out his anger on the umpires during games until I watched it. On the other hand, Borg seemed to have been just a serious person.

However, thanks to the film and their information on the internet, their images have changed a little, especially Borg's. Although I had known that the Swedish player was a model professional player, did not express his emotions and was so cool that he was called Ice Man, yet, actually, he sometimes shouted abusive language during practices and matches like McEnroe before making his professional debut. The episode was totally unexpected to me and showed how human he was, so I came to like him. He was always burning inside but at the same time he followed his coach's advice to calm down and focus on every play during matches. Then he held up on his end until his retirement. He must have felt tremendous stress and pressure during his playing days. Such his personal stories must be handed down from generation to generation in addition to his great achievements in tennis history. The movie has a scene where in a hotel room Borg and his wife are watching McEnroe spitting out curses on the umpire in a match. He seemed to envy the American player who does not stop to reveal his emotions. He also seemed to remember his amateur days and feel nostalgia. Borg's wife then says that McEnroe does not concentrate on the match. Her husband quickly retorts that he completely does implying that he is too concentrate to forgive misjudges. At the minute Borg must have been the person who was deeply understanding the controversial player the most in the world.

As for McEnroe, he respected Borg. In the 1980 Wimbledon Men's Singles finals, he used abusive language like always expect for the final against Borg in which he was focusing on playing his tennis without violent language. Then the match became one of the most hard-fought games in Tennis history. The movie has a scene where McEnroe is watching Borg calmly speaking in an interview on TV and McEnroe says that he has wanted to be like him. I wonder if McEnroe had met a coach like Borg's coach Lennart Bergelin. He might have been like Ice Man, though I do not want to see the cold and quiet McEnroe.

The two great players became close friends after each retired. Both of them have a similar mind, so they must have easily gotten along with each other.