I am not old enough to have watched him play live but have heard so much about Borg! Became a huge fan of him as well.Looking at the documentaries they made about him and listening to people talk about him, he is probably the biggest rock star tennis has ever had. His game was extremely modern when you look at it now. Forehand was very similar to the technique players use now.
Fed is a great ambassador for the sport but the charisma and influence Borg had on tennis is much bigger.
And Borg could be holding all the records today if he didn't walk away from the game at 25 years old. Just think of how much tennis he still had in him.
I tend to agree, although I think that during Agassi/Sampras in the 90's and in the Fedal Rivarily in 05-08 we got something close. I mean, in my whole life I never seen anything close to the repercussion of that 2008 Wimbledon Final. Every sports site, newspaper, tv show, it was all about that match. Even on FM Radio here in my city. Nothing came close to this ever since.Tennis was much more popular in the Borg/McEnroe era. From the comments, I see a lot of people don't realize this. As popular as Federer is, no player can compare to Borg's popularity. He was almost like a rock star.
Borg was something like The Beatles in all world recognition
Mid to late '70s?
As I recall, it became popular in the U.S. in the early 70's because of new professional tennis organizations/circuits like WCT, Grand Prix and Virginia Slims negotiating TV contracts.Even before Borg and McEnroe, tennis had started to become truly popular in the US earlier in the 70s with the likes of Connors, Evert, Stan Smith, Ashe, Navratilova and more. I imagine that it had become quite popular in Australia even before that with Laver, Rosewall, Emerson and others.
I have a thread that uses "# of tournaments per year" as an indirect measure of "popularity". This data is from the ATP website:
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So based on this metric, it looks like tennis was at it's most popular during 1971-1982, with a big dip during 1982-1986 (anybody know why?), and then another popularity surge during 1987-1999.
I don't know much about the history of tennis, or the business of the ATP. But I do know that of the times I've been to the US Open and Wimbledon during the past five years, they both have been ****ing packed!
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EASY
I can also add Ingemar Stenmark.Sweden's third biggest export behind Volvo & Abba.
in the UK its never been a popular sport, most people only follow Wimbledon if at all. As a participation sport I suspects the 1930s was the height of club culture albeit with a narrow middle class participation. Footie rules.
Thanks
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My dad/grandmother/aunt played (at a decently high level) throughout the mid-60s and early 70s. They always tell me that if you showed up to a park with 4-5 courts when the weather was good, you would have to sign up on a sheet and wait to play, sometimes several hours. I think I have had to wait on public courts for a total of 15 minutes my entire life.
So I don't know exactly when the sport blew up, probably way before that, but there was certainly a time in America when it was a very popular sport to play recreationally.
Hehe I'm not quite that old, but I started playing in 1980, and it's true, it was not easy to get on public courts, you had to wait. That's not the case now.
Long shot: Did you use Chatango during the tennis matches circa 2009-2014 on live streaming sites? This is like a super long shot.
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The two joked before the final at US Open 76.Thanks
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He'd been grinding since 15 on the tour, he was done.And Borg could be holding all the records today if he didn't walk away from the game at 25 years old. Just think of how much tennis he still had in him.
The 70s!!!! Everything was better then.
The two joked before the final at US Open 76.
Robert Bruce ...great vintage.
Great outfits 70s.. or not?
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Borg had his racquets strung very tight, and he chose which racquets to use depending on the sound of it.
I saw in a documentary he had like a bed full of strung racquets to choose from. Spent like an hour the night before every match testing racquets by the sound of it. He had many things he had to do to perfectionize his game. He was also very fit. He has never been exhausted in a match, worked out a lot.
11 slams and also the most difficult slams to get back to back, retired age 25...
He MIGHT be the goat. And for sure he is the biggest tennis star ever lived.
He is the real "maesto" of tennis LOL. Choosing racquets by the sound of it. Think those racquets couldnt be strung any harder. Wish I was alive when he was on top. His style and personality... Its not strange why he became so big. He was a bit of a mystery too, with his coolness.Yes, about 40 kilos. Some of his racquets' strings were broken with big noise during the night just because they were very tight.
In 1974, with Jimmy Connors playing a revolutionary brand of tennis with attitude, including a desire to take tennis out of the elitist clubs. Then there was Bjorn Borg and Guillermo Vilas as sex symbols, and then John McEnroe's appeal taking bad attitude still further than Connors. It took off then.
He is the real "maesto" of tennis LOL. Choosing racquets by the sound of it. Think those racquets couldnt be strung any harder. Wish I was alive when he was on top. His style and personality... Its not strange why he became so big. He was a bit of a mystery too, with his coolness.
at that time tennis was fresh, hip and cool. It evolved from being old fashioned little boring to become for everybody and attract young audience. With Fed its going back to the whole gentleman thing again. Rafa is the one most similar to this in the 70s, but unfortunately he has become like the others now too.^ your post: +1. That was the modern wave (after the original "golden age of sports" period of the 1920's that tennis was part of).
also depends on who (and where) you ask, e.g.:
TW-TT: when 'RF' appeared . . .
It started with the beginning of the open era, long before Federer reached his peak. In the seventies and eighties, with: Connors, McEnroe, Borg, Lendl, Becker, Courier and Edberg. In the nineties with Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Chang, Hewitt, and a few others.When Federer was born.
i had this oneBack when it got extreme!
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Yep. At least here in DC, the 70's/80's you had to either get there super early or plan on waiting. We'd drive out to the suburbs and still have to wait, just not as much as in the city.My dad/grandmother/aunt played (at a decently high level) throughout the mid-60s and early 70s. They always tell me that if you showed up to a park with 4-5 courts when the weather was good, you would have to sign up on a sheet and wait to play, sometimes several hours. I think I have had to wait on public courts for a total of 15 minutes my entire life.
So I don't know exactly when the sport blew up, probably way before that, but there was certainly a time in America when it was a very popular sport to play recreationally.
When Federer was born.
I did not care about tennis until I became a fan of Federer and it's going to be hard to love it as much when he's gone
My favourite player from that golden era Gerulaitis, won 1 major title at the AO in 1977 (though it wasn't even a proper major nor the biggest title that he won during his career), and he was a huge superstar as well. Nastase, Vilas and Gerulaitis themselves were all huge superstars and household names in the 70s, offering a tremendous supporting cast alongside that golden triumvirate of Borg, Connors and McEnroe.
I don't think that any other one-time grand slam champion in the open era has had the star appeal of Gerulaitis. For example the popularity of Roddick in 2003-2004 doesn't compare to the popularity of Vitas in the late 70s-early 80s.
and yet tennis industry statistics show the number of people playing the game, at least in the US and England where the tennis industry website had stats available, has declined from 2008 until now. Fed, it seems, has not been any sort of savior for the game.
and yet tennis industry statistics show the number of people playing the game, at least in the US and England where the tennis industry website had stats available, has declined from 2008 until now. Fed, it seems, has not been any sort of savior for the game.
i had this one
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there were no cybermugs on the cybertour in that time, believe me !
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... with plugs on the cartridge for extra joypads to play doubles against pete and 60's weed !
Playing.. but what about watching?and yet tennis industry statistics show the number of people playing the game, at least in the US and England where the tennis industry website had stats available, has declined from 2008 until now. Fed, it seems, has not been any sort of savior for the game.