Hard to explain to people today, but Borg winning 5 Wimbledons in a row on a fast, slick bad uneven grass surface AND winning 6 French on slow as molasses red dirt clay, its hard to quantify how impressive that is.
A very interesting "what if...." Borg is full of them. I agree with you that Pete, or at least the press around Pete, invented the Slam race. I will thank him, as it has been interesting and entertaining, but I bet tennis would thank him the most.
I did start that Luddites thread I said I would. Would love to talk more about this. https://www.tennisfrontier.com/threads/the-pleasures-of-being-a-luddite.7641/#post-501499
Are you thinking that Novak won't manage one? It would be a stretch.Well we all know Nadal would be the last of the BIG 3 to be able to complete the Channel Slam! You had 1 warm up event at QUEENS and that was it B4 the 6 days between the FO end and Wimbledon start! After a few years more time was given and more events created to prepare! Borg won the Channel Slam 3 straight years and no one's been able to equal that even with the extra time and improvement of the grass surface!
Well we all know Nadal would be the last of the BIG 3 to be able to complete the Channel Slam! You had 1 warm up event at QUEENS and that was it B4 the 6 days between the FO end and Wimbledon start! After a few years more time was given and more events created to prepare! Borg won the Channel Slam 3 straight years and no one's been able to equal that even with the extra time and improvement of the grass surface!
Yeah, but we're not too old for skimming when we read. I totally thought that Fiero was wrong about the weeks between RG and W, but decided to pass on debating. Somehow I took him at his word, as a Djokovic fan, that Djokovic hadn't done it. Forgetting completely the near-CYGS in 2021. Which I basically just wanted to.
So no one played Queen's Club? And, while I'm sure your memory is perfect, there would have been no matches at Roland Garros played either locally, or in the US after midnight.Check again sweetie! Mid 70's it was still just a week! I think tour added a week in '77! I never missed a match even if telecast after midnight!
Check again sweetie! Mid 70's it was still just a week! I think tour added a week in '77! I never missed a match even if telecast after midnight!
Fiero, Fiero, Fiero, you just argued that Borg completed his Channel Double with only 1 week break
Here are the dates of his first in 1978:
French Open 1978:
1978 French Open - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Wimbledon 1978:
1978 Wimbledon Championships - Wikipedia
Look up every year of each tournament from 1968-1977 and there are 2 weeks between tournaments. Every year 2 weeks without fail.
Fiero, we are going to have to put you in “The Home” now….. ; )
I just thought it ridiculous to have 2 of the biggest tournaments of the season back to back! I still think it odd and from then on, they've been giving more and more time to prepare! Prepare for what? The grass is little more than a semi-soft HC! How special will the feat be if even Djokovic can pull off 5 straight Wimbledons? Poor Nadal's still outside looking in while Borg, Federer, & maybe Djokovic can complete the accomplishment! 
That’s not completely accurate. There were at least a couple of years with a week between them, and sometimes 3 weeks, until 1977, when it became fixed at two weeks…
Far as I remember, it wasn’t the press, it was Pete himself, being typically ravenous. I think the reasons he set this goal were that as he ahe’d and felt more wear and tear, he’d become less able to compete on clay, and so he needed another peak to climb for motivation. He created a monster but one we enjoy. A simple formula, and at this stage it’s difficult to imagine anyone getting to 15+ slams and not being considered a tennis deity..
Bjorn was a beast. A slight challenge to the Borg myth suggests that in those years he faced no grass court specialists until he beat McEnroe in 1980. That not to diminish his achievement, which is stuff of the very highest level, and I think he’d have beaten McEnroe every season until McEnroe peaked, but Bjorn had his great Wimbledon run between great eras of grass court players - the Aussies had flown and the first generation professionals had yet to give us the great players it gave us in the 80’s.Well we all know Nadal would be the last of the BIG 3 to be able to complete the Channel Slam! You had 1 warm up event at QUEENS and that was it B4 the 6 days between the FO end and Wimbledon start! After a few years more time was given and more events created to prepare! Borg won the Channel Slam 3 straight years and no one's been able to equal that even with the extra time and improvement of the grass surface!
Was Roscoe a grass court specialist? I know he had huge serve, still fast by todays reckoning, but did he have much behind it? That was one of the greatest finals, tense all the way. Why do you call it a Breakfast at Wimbledon in 1979? The TV channels started showing tennis then? Jimbo was a baseliner, good low flat shots, but once Bjorn came of age it was grist to the mill, beating Jimbo.What would you call the 1st "Breakfast At Wimbledon" in '79 w/ Roscoe Tanner? He even defeated Connors once or twice on grass! Borg in 5!
Kieran, You are absolutely right. Fiero your memory is not bad enough to quite put you in the Home, or maybe I will join you there!!
That’s interesting. Tennis was only starting to get going then, eh, with regards to television. We were lucky, we grew up with the BBC. Dan Maskill. An old black and white telly and a coat hanger as an aerial.
I think 1979 and 1980 were the best years for Bjorn to get that CYGS. McEnroe still hasn’t peaked in 79, he owned Jimmy, and he lost to roscoe? Bad news! I didn’t get the results until a couple of days later, our Dublin daily newspapers didn’t bother with this. In 1980 he choked a little, I think, in that game at 3-all. 2 DFs. Still hurts! Too soon to be talking about this, chap, sorry!I didn't cry too much that Roscoe knocked him off at the USO! I figure it all balanced out! He had taken FO & Wimbledon! I wasn't greedy! He should have won that '76 final over Connors when played on Har-Tru clay beeds! That TB still haunts me! He had a couple set points, but Connors stole it with a couple line skippers! Nastase didn't get him, but went out in straight to Borg in their Wimbledon match! Borg just had really bad luck in NY along w/ planes flying over constantly, a shooting, & dilapidating facility! IMO, even though I live here, it's the worst run and probably most corrupt of all the majors! It's hard to have any respect considering it's supposed to be an elite event!
Traditionalists have NEVER accepted that Borg could have won Wimbledon 5 times with his game, since he proved them wrong with all their predictions. As Fiero can attest, the grass was so much more uneven then today, very slick, it was hardly an “ advantage” for Borg, because big servers could blow you off the court. Groundstrokers were at a huge disadvantage. Arthur Ashe used to claim it was better to hit a “bad” volley on grass than a good one because the bounce would be even more erratic. IIRC Victor Amaya, a huge server one year came close to upsetting Borg.
They still would have their championship tennis minds, wouldn’t they ? and champhions seem to rise to the top.
