borg number one
Legend
Borg nº 1, I think Borg played as well indoors as he playe clay or grass.Possibly a bit lower on hard, altough he was able to win ( other than USO) the most prestigious hard court events like Toronto (over Lendl and Mc Enroe) and Las vegas.In 1979 he won LV over Mayer and Connors, and in 1980 he killed Solomon and Vitas Gerulatis in the same event.
Kiki, that's a good overview of Borg at the WCT and Masters events. The US Open was on hard courts from 1978-1981 (so he played in 4 hard court majors, and lost in the finals three times). He did win some hard court events though. Of course, the Tour was weighted more towards indoor tourneys back then compared to these days (more hard court tourneys instead now). With the WCT and the Masters, I think you have to look at it year by year. The 1980 and 1981 Masters Cup tourneys were bigger than the WCT events those years, in terms of importance to the top players. It was a YEC for one thing, but by then it had really grown in prestige. In earlier years though, I think the WCT Finals was a bigger event. Both McEnroe and Borg have more impressive overall records when one considers that they won WCT/Masters events while not playing in the AO. It was just a different Tour at that time. The biggest indoor matches they played against each other, I would say, were those matches at Madison Square Garden. The 1979 WCT match was also a big match, but the Masters Cup, with big prize money, big crowds, and TV coverage in 1980-1981 was just behind W, the US Open,and the FO. Ranking points would be another consideration when comparing the WCT and the Masters year by year. There's a thread in which posters discussed which tournament was in effect the "4th biggest" tournament of the year, on a yearly basis from about 1975-early 1980's. It's a good way to view the tournament results during a period when the AO was not considered truly a "major" tournament. That old indoor circuit produced some spectacular tennis. It's hard to get much better than Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, Gerulaitis, and Vilas facing off indoors at NY's MSG. I remember reading about that tourney back then and they often talked about how electric the matches could be.
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