Jimmy Connors existed in one of the most iconic eras in tennis history, with some of the names he competed with still revered to this day.
The likes of John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Arthur Ashe and Connors himself are all regarded as legendary figures who dominated the sport, but with Wimbledon now in full flow, the latter could not go without praising one of that trio who dominated on the grass.
Were it not for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, his legacy would likely be even stronger.
But Borg was still a monster when it came time to play in SW19, and his long-time rival has now sought to explain why.
Jimmy Connors full of praise for Bjorn Borg
Speaking on his Advantage Connors podcast, the US tennis star, and winner of eight Grand Slam titles, looked to comb back over his illustrious career this week.
However, with Wimbledon having just started, naturally he had to incorporate the tournament into his conversation.
So, he reminisced about the great battles he shared with the other greats of his time, with Born and McEnroe the two at the forefront of his mind.
The former, though, was simply a class above everyone else at this event, and Connors has now explained why: ‘Wimbledon. You’ve got to go by the rules, there’s no breaking the rules. It’s tradition…
‘That’s why I look back and I see my buddy Bjorn Borg why he was so comfortable there. That was his personality, it allowed him to go in and play his kind of tennis and he fit right in that mould.
‘I was more of a crazy guy and that sort of atmosphere. Wimbledon for him was great and he proved it. He won five in a row. The success he had there.’
How good was Bjorn Borg?
Not only a true legend of the sport, Borg arguably transcended tennis, and elevated it to a newfound level when he burst onto the scene.
Having emerged as a teenage sensation in the early 1970s, his meteoric rise helped to propel tennis to the forefront of media attention as he simply could not be ignored.
A striking Swedish superstar with flowing blond hair and a patented play style, he was happy to engage in gruelling baseline rallies, where he would apply devastating topspin from both the fore and backhand.
The archetypal trailblazer, this helped him to win six French Open titles, unsurprisingly given how his philosophy adapted to clay. However, his further five Wimbledon titles, which came one after another in a record that remains to this day, were far more surprising given his style was not completely conducive to the grass.
He remains eighth for titles won in the Open Era, amassed over $3.5m in prize money, and remains one of the sport’s most legendary and notable figures.
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