The Tie Break

The Tie Break that was part of the 1980 Wimbledon Men’s Singles Final brought together two contrasting tennis players. 

The four time defending champion and seeded number 1 was the ice-cool Swede Bjorn Borg with the model looks. His opponent was the young brash American John McEnroe full of energy and attitude.

Heading into the 4th set, Borg led 2-1 but McEnroe was not in any mood to yield. The set was level at 6 games all and went to a tie break that will be remembered for the ages. The tie break was first to 7 and you had to win by two clear points. It went with serve until 4-4 when Borg broke McEnroe and then held his serve to go 6-5 up with Championship point.

McEnroe served and volleyed to win that point on his own serve before then breaking Borg to save another Championship point at 6-7.

Then it was Borg’s turn as he saved two McEnroe set points before then being denied three times by McEnroe on Championship point.

McEnroe was now in the ascendency and after failing with another four set points, he finally won the tie break 18-16 when Borg put his serve return into the net.

That levelled the match at 2 sets each, but somehow Bjorn Borg managed to regroup to win the final set 8-6 to take his fifth consecutive title.

It was a Match Play Moment that tennis fans will never forget and it inspired the 2017 movie Borg v McEnroe.

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