Bjorn Borg’s attention to details is best described in a few anecdotes. In June 1979, some rackets were shipped to a hotel where Bjorn Borg was staying in the USA. As soon as he had the rackets in his hands, Bjorn Borg realised that they were too heavy, weighing 418 grams instead of the prescribed 415gr. Panic spread to Donnay’s management and José got flying instructions for an on-site intervention. Suspecting humidity due to insufficient packaging and fully confident in the quality of his work, José recommended from his sanctuary office that the frames should go on a diet and be put on a radiator to get rid of the excess humidity. Lennart called the next day with the news that the diet had been a success.
The following year, José was called out to Wimbledon to provide his services. Bjorn was horrified by the feel of the grip in his hands. José realised that the Fairway grip had swollen, increasing the width by 1 mm and simply replaced the grips. Stricter quality requirements were later imposed on the UK grip provider.
One day, José and some of his Donnay colleagues were attending a tennis exhibition in Liège. All of a sudden, the crowd got struck by Bjorn Borg’s racket, which had exploded as a result of the combination between the power of the stroke and the heavy string tension. José’s colleagues all looked bewildered at him and they soon burst into laughter. Today, José still vividly remembers the following days and weeks of private jokes which followed.
Bjorn Borg’s ritual during the Wimbledon tournament best reflects the extreme care he took in preparing himself mentally and in ensuring his equipment was in the best condition (2). This meant that all the environmental parameters had to be reproduced exactly to obtain the ideal brain conditioning. For instance, Bjorn Borg would always set the air conditioning to 12 degrees or always go on a diet to make sure he did not weigh more than 73 kg. Two days before the tournament, Lennart would make sure Bjorn Borg received a two-hour massage sessionOn the day before the tournament, Bjorn Borg would turn into a musician and complete a two-to-three hour percussion exercise, setting his 50 rackets in front of him in very much the same way as a xylophone player would prepare for a concert. A racket in each hand, Bjorn Borg would then test the slightest variation in the strings’ notes. He would then methodically display the 50 rackets on the floor according to their notes. On every match day, he would pick up his usual six rackets. Sometimes, a highly strung gut would snap in the middle of the night as an unexpected echo to the earlier concert. However, these singing rackets could not wake such a relaxed tennis virtuoso.
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