1980 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles final


The 1980 Wimbledon Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the Men's Singles tournament at the 1980 Wimbledon Championships. In the final, Björn Borg defeated John McEnroe 1–6, 7–5, 6–3, 6–7, 8–6 to win the match. It was regarded at the time as the greatest match ever played. It would be another 28 years before it would be rivaled by the 2008 Wimbledon men's singles final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Match

The match was eagerly awaited as not only was it a clash between the top two seeds, it was also a meeting of opposites:
At the start of the final, McEnroe was booed by the crowd as he entered Centre Court, because of the heated exchanges he had had with officials during his semi-final victory over Jimmy Connors.
In the final's fourth-set tiebreaker that lasted 20 minutes, McEnroe saved five championship points and eventually won 18–16. The tie-break was later described by one reporter as "the most riveting episode in the sport's history".
McEnroe, however, could not break Borg's serve in the fifth set, which the Swede won 8–6.

Significance

This match was called the best Wimbledon final by ESPN's countdown show "Who's Number One?" and "one of the three or four greatest sporting events in history" by ESPN English speaking personality Mike Greenberg. In 1999, it ranked #10 on ESPN's SportsCentury's Ten Greatest Games of the 20th Century. In a 2002 UK poll conducted by Channel 4, the British public voted the match #10 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments. The New York Times tennis writer Neil Amdur wrote in 2011: "I covered the 1980 Wimbledon men’s singles final between McEnroe and Borg. Until the 2008 Nadal–Federer classic at the All England Club, the Borg–McEnroe five-setter at Wimbledon was the greatest tennis match I had ever seen, but after watching chunks of the 3:53 McEnroe–Borg final at an HBO screening, I am tempted again to reaffirm its place as the sport’s single most compelling piece of court magic".