What happened to Mats Wilander after 1988?

[Ricardo]

Id give him 3 AOs as a reasonable estimate if he played it. For years he was the best player on grass, and 3 AO would've not been considered a high number for him. Anything less i think would be considered underachieving.

I think Borg would've been 16-18 if he played todays schedule and 'properly' retired.

The rumour at the time, was that there was death threat made against him and that unsettled him. That Mac thing was just conveniently used and well overplayed. There was no reason to believe that Mac would've continued to beat him into pulps in all those slams which followed.

He was a phenomenal player.

 

[Kieran]

The grass in Oz was better suited to his game, actually: Mats won there twice and took down Mac in a semi in Oz. It had a coarser grass and a higher bounce. But the problem would have been getting him to go there.

By the way, sometimes I think the idea that he was still as great in 1982 and playing exos out of this world...well, he played Monte Carlo that year and got thrashed by Noah in the quarters. He clearly wasn't as sharp in 1982 as he had been. He may have gotten there, but that's another "what might have been" scenario...

 

[britbox]

Id give him 3 AOs as a reasonable estimate if he played it. For years he was the best player on grass, and 3 AO would've not been considered a high number for him. Anything less i think would be considered underachieving.

I think Borg would've been 16-18 if he played todays schedule and 'properly' retired.

The rumour at the time, was that there was death threat made against him and that unsettled him. That Mac thing was just conveniently used and well overplayed. There was no reason to believe that Mac would've continued to beat him into pulps in all those slams which followed.

He was a phenomenal player.

The death threat was definitely real. They hurried him out of the US Open after his final loss to Mac.
I think things just came to a head with Borg and he had to take a break. Also he was beginning to overdo things on the social circuit with Vitas (it's pretty widely accepted that he was becoming friendly with the white columbian marching powder).

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

^ Holy, I DO remember the death treat thing! It was during the Us Open wasn't it? And cops and everyone took it very seriously at the time.

 

[Ricardo]

^ Holy, I DO remember the death treat thing! It was during the Us Open wasn't it? And cops and everyone took it very seriously at the time.

It was over 30 years ago and my memory would've faded a bit..... anyway, i don't buy the Mac thing too much because Mac wasn't nearly as a bad match up for him like Rafa is to Roger, yet Roger carried on and did just fine (winning titles)..... except against Rafa.