Grass Rivals Spirit of Wimbledon


Grass Rivals

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The 1980s and '90s turned Wimbledon from a refined sport to the modern power game we see today.

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Great rivalries ritualised every summer.

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Technology revolutionised tennis.

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And Centre Court became a duelling ground between its greatest champions.

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Each one required someone else to just help them go

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that extra stage further and be that little bit better.

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Ultimately, they're better for the existence of the other.

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It becomes this benchmark. It becomes context.

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You wondered how long they could go on playing this extraordinary tennis.

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An unbelievable shot!

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I think the whole world was waiting for us to play

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and for me to play John was something special.

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By the summer of 1980, something was needed to lift our spirits.

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Riots and demonstrations were a common sight around Britain

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as the country struggled with an era of austerity under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.

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The lady's not for turning.

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At Wimbledon, the weather reflected the mood.

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It was one of the wettest tournaments on record.

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Out of the gloom, though, emerged one of the greatest ever matches.

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a drama of compelling intensity that defined two careers and changed tennis forever.

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Over 30 years on, it's difficult to distinguish truth from myth.

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But when Bjorn Borg sank to his knees at 6:11 on the 5th of July, 1980,

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tennis had become a modern sport -

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celebrity-driven, youthful and glamorous.

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I think we did a lot for tennis in general.

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The interest, the impact of our match not only here at Wimbledon but all over the world.

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As the first tennis rock star, Borg led the way.

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He was a symbol of the flower power generation, attracting a new, young audience

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to the conservative confines of the All England Club.

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Wimbledon prefers to keep things,

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for the most part, relatively low key. And Borg shook it up without a doubt.

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Suddenly you had screaming girls hammering on the side of the court, clamouring for this guy.

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But Borg's personality didn't match his looks. He was reserved, boring even,

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but he just kept winning - four straight Wimbledon titles coming into the '80 final.

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And that's it!

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Borg? My favourite tennis player of all time. The cool Swede would waddle in with the big shoulders

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and the little waist, with the headband, say nothing and then beat everybody to a pulp.

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I think those who used to sit at home on men's and women's final day,

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it was perceived that Wimbledon was watched by perhaps mothers and fathers and grandparents,

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suddenly it was watched by kids leaping up and down looking at this kid with long, blond hair

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who was this new sensation.

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It was only when a true rebel, a New Yorker through and through with plenty to say for himself,

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appeared across the net did Borg's character gain the contrast it so badly needed.

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-Play a let?

-The call came before the ball was played.

-He never called it!

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He would just go crazy. You knew he was going to lose it at some point.

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-He never said anything.

-He called a fault.

-He just went like that.

-And he called a fault.

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-Play a let.

-'Most people found his behaviour objectionable when he was a young man,

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'the way he would query decisions'

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and argue with officials and stamp his foot as if only he mattered.

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Mr McEnroe, you are getting a public warning. Now please play on.

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CHEERING

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Keep your mouth shut out there.

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I'd like the referee out here.

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Fans were often very conflicted in their feelings. They loved how he performed.

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but not always the behaviour,

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'so they were very torn, but he could win them back with his play.'

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He was a beautiful player to watch. That service motion, the serve and volley game. Just spectacular.

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An incredibly talented guy with hands like butter.

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The most beautiful volleys. No one could make anyone's hands softer than McEnroe at the net.

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As 2pm approached on finals day in 1980,

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the world had been drawn into the drama. Their contrasts in personality made a perfect rivalry.

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The ice-cool favourite versus the hothead challenger.

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To play John was something special

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because we played a lot of times previous before the final and they were all very close matches.

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So I was looking forward to playing him and I knew that John wanted to beat me really badly.

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I figured that my game was well-suited to play his at Wimbledon,

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so I was very excited about it.

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I felt like... My time had come.

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And so it seemed as McEnroe took the opening set 6-1

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in just 26 minutes.

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That's it. That's the first set.

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Tennis, it is said, is like boxing without gloves

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and, just like the boxing ring, great rivalries lift the sport into the realms of theatre,

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allowing character to be revealed and narrative to be built.

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There is no bigger stage than finals day on Centre Court.

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In the early years, rivalries were good-natured,

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wrapped up in sportsmanship and the etiquette of the day.

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Times soon changed.

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Tennis, I think, is special in that it is single-armed combat.

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It's one against one and your technique against the other player's.

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It's also your mental strength against the other player's mental strength

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and your ability to rise to the occasion when it demands.

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It helps if they have contrasting styles. If they're the two best players, all the better.

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They raise the bar for each other.

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You need that other player to push you.

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You need that benchmark. If you just win every match, people say, "He didn't have any competition."

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Ultimately, they're better for the existence of the other. It gives their greatness some context.

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In the women's game, another rivalry was also flourishing.

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Five times Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert met in a Wimbledon final

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and five times Navratilova came out on top, with Evert twice overcoming her rival in semi-finals.

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Like Borg and McEnroe, they were perfect foils

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and, like a good novel, a new chapter unfolded each high summer.

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With Chris, I felt it was my match to win or my match to lose.

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I was more in control, but still Chris was so good

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and would not give you anything.

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I knew I had to really keep my cool and keep it together because she was not going to give it at all.

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Navratilova's fitness, determination and power would take the game to a new level in the 1980s.

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Her nine singles titles is still a record to this day.

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She changed people's attitudes towards her in so many ways

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and conquered so many demons and won here with a style I wish we saw more players playing today.

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But the emotion of her on Centre Court, it did something to her.

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Navratilova's dominance was challenged by Steffi Graf,

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but although they met in three successive finals, Graf winning two,

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the mantle had already passed on. Graf won seven titles,

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but never found a rival to question her supremacy on Centre Court.

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In the second set of the 1980 final, Borg began to play like the champion once more.

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But McEnroe stood firm.

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Borg was in trouble at four-all. He saved some break points.

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He was teetering on the brink. He did not want to see a two-set lead.

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He managed to squeak the set out 7-5 after he could well have lost it 6-4.

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That was important. There's a huge difference between 1-1 and 2-0.

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Both players knew it and I think it carried Borg

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-through the third set very comfortably.

-Now on level terms,

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Borg's experience on Centre Court began to show, taking the third set 6-3.

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If the 1980 final marked the start of a new era of celebrity,

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it also marked the beginning of the end of an era of artistry, guile and grace.

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Just five years later, a teenager from West Germany took the game by storm.

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When unseeded Boris Becker won the first of his three Wimbledon singles titles, he was just 17,

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the youngest ever.

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But the clue to the real impact Becker made on the game came in his nickname - Boom Boom.

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Game and first set...

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Now you say, "That was Boom Boom? That's not so big,"

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but at the time he had this sort of hulking physique, the big serve...

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In some ways, his game was tailored to Wimbledon.

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I think he filled young people with confidence that here was a kid, 17...

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You think of 17-year-olds nowadays.

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Could a 17-year-old now go out and win Wimbledon? I don't think so.

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Armed with one of a new generation of graphite racquets,

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Becker transformed the sport into the power game we see today. For tennis, there was no turning back.

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For close to 100 years, players made do with wooden racquets strung with catgut.

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New-fangled designs came and went, but it was still about the craftsman and not the tools.

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The global growth of the game brought new commercial opportunities for racquet manufacturers

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and new materials were tried and tested.

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Jimmy Connors embraced a steel racquet in the '70s,

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whilst John McEnroe employed a composite version in the early '80s.

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The quantum leap came soon after with the introduction of over-sized graphite racquets

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and man-made strings.

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Stronger, yet lighter, and wielding a bigger sweet spot,

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players could hit harder and more freely.

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There were big implications for the whole game,

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not least for Wimbledon where the fast grass surface already favoured the power players.

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Something had to be done to maintain the balance between power and touch.

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The speed of the balls was reduced and many believe the courts were slowed, too.

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I think if you ask the players, the players will tell you that the court is definitely slower

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than it was 10 years ago. I've heard players say it's slower than the French.

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We've never tried to slow the courts down, but what we have done is change the grasses over the years.

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People have said that slowed the courts down. What's happened is it's made the bounce a little bit higher.

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So if the ball's coming through

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a few inches higher, then it gives the players more opportunity to return it.

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The fact is that everybody now, because of the racquet technology,

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plays the same on every surface.

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It's not just grass. When they come here to play the short grass court period,

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they come with their strokes honed on hard court and clay court play.

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Whether it be the racquet, strings, balls or the grass,

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a player's movement has changed drastically from attacking the net

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to counter-attacking from the baseline today.

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So good are ground strokes that the volley has all but disappeared, a fact mourned by many.

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We've had Wimbledon finals where the winner hasn't got to the net except to shake hands.

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I think something's missing, something's deficient when you can win without hitting a volley.

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Equipment technology would significantly affect rivalries in the 1980s and '90s.

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Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg brought almost identical serve and volley games to Centre Court

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for three successive finals, Edberg edging out the trilogy by 2 to 1.

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Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi developed a worldwide rivalry which was never fulfilled at Wimbledon.

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Before the balls and supposedly the grass were slowed down,

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with the balance still in favour of the serve/volleyer,

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Sampras prospered, winning Wimbledon a record seven times.

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Game, set and match, Sampras. Three sets to love - 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

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-Six games all.

-CROWD CALL OUT

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Quiet, please. The tie break now comes into operation.

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Two sets to one to Borg in the 1980 final.

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The fourth set would go into a tie break. THE tie break. The greatest of all time.

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McEnroe continued to serve and volley superbly.

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But Borg's ground strokes were as precise as ever.

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6-5 to Borg

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and match point to the Swede.

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Oh!

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However he got there, I don't know!

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It was just the beginning of a tie break that would continue to ebb and flow.

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I did feel like during that tie breaker it was becoming something that was going to be really special.

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It seemed like there was a lot of points that ended with winners and the crowd was really into it.

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It just had this magical moment you don't feel that often.

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Championship point number four.

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Borg, on match point, during that tie breaker, lunged and fell

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on a backhand volley. If he had made that volley, he'd have won the match

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and been ten feet in front of me. I'd have had the entire stadium and all the crowd reacting.

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It would have been just in my face. But he misses the point.

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It was as if both men were feeding off each other, cajoling, pushing,

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lifting each other to new heights.

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For 20 minutes, Borg and McEnroe produced tennis of verve and artistry rarely seen.

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Every other point was set point

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or championship point. It went back and forth like that.

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And every point was won. These guys were playing fabulous tennis.

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It wasn't like anybody was choking.

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If this were a heavyweight boxing contest, they'd stop the fight.

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'I used to make notes on my pad that I'd devised for scoring'

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and it was very difficult to keep track of all the match points and set points.

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I would press the button to cut the microphone and say,

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"Did I get that right? Was that the sixth match point?"

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Oh, what a marvellous volley! It's in.

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Oh, my God.

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This is the greatest match that's ever been played. You're watching it.

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You're right here. You know, you're right here.

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And that tie break just goes on and on.

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And nobody loses any points. Every point is a winner.

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-15-all.

-McEnroe saved five match points to add to the two saved earlier in the set.

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-An unbelievable shot!

-While Borg saved six set points,

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before McEnroe seized the moment.

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You just wondered how long the players could go on playing this extraordinary level of tennis.

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Until suddenly Borg missed a volley on set point.

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Yes!

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Two sets all!

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You'd have thought the roof of Centre Court was going to blow off.

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The cheers for making it two sets all were just extraordinary.

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When it was over, I thought, "There's no way I can lose now."

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I thought the guy has got to let down. This is it now.

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Well, now this final has become an absolute classic.

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Deep inside, I thought definitely I'm going to lose this match.

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I was so disappointed and... mad with myself

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that how could I lose this match? I was thinking that way, even with one more set to play.

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Game, Miss Serena Williams.

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Wimbledon has known other rivalries since. In the women's game, the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena,

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are almost too close to share a court competitively.

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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have enjoyed three epic finals,

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the last of them at least as gripping as Borg and McEnroe

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and possibly of greater quality from first to last.

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I think if you asked Roger Federer if he would be the player he is were it not for Nadal

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and asked Nadal the same, they'd say they needed each other to raise their game higher.

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I think the same would be true of Navratilova and Evert, of Borg and McEnroe.

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Each one required someone else to help them go just that extra stage further

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and be that little bit better.

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Perhaps because of the passing of time, a longing for a bygone age,

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nothing seems to eclipse the 1980 final.

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After losing the fourth set in such a dramatic way,

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many thought Borg was gone.

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Starting the fifth set,

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I remember walking out to serve.

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And I knew that it was crucial to hold serve in the first game.

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But still I was thinking about the tie breaker.

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But then it became that I could relax. I didn't know what I was thinking - I was just playing.

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And, funnily enough, that was probably the most relaxing set I played over the five sets.

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Such was the fortitude of the man that Borg would lose just two points on his serve

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the rest of the match.

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Seven games to six up, a record fifth straight victory was almost his.

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That's it!

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Cue the most iconic celebration in Wimbledon history.

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Even today, people around the world, they remember the match.

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Some people come up, you know,

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telling both me and John what a great tie breaker. They have no idea who won it.

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They remember we played a tie break and that's a nice match to remember, I think, both for me and John.

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Of course, someone's got to lose, but in a sense

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I can look at my kids in the eye and say that made me a better player and a better person.

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I was more respected because of that, the excitement of the tie breaker,

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being part of one of the great matches in tennis history.

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McEnroe would end Borg's reign a year later with the first of his three singles titles.

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Borg retired aged 26.

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He made one comeback and did not return to Wimbledon again until the Millennium celebrations.

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McEnroe, who was initially refused membership of the All England Club because of his behaviour,

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is no longer Superbrat.

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The 1980 final is a tribute to an era which saw some of Wimbledon's greatest rivalries

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and its most dominant players.

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Few thought the game on grass could be bettered so soon,

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but greatness cannot be confined so neatly to place and time.

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A brilliant new champion was just a heartbeat away.

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Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2011

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