The Bjorn and John Show

Tennis' twin titans find a fortune Down Under

The last time Bjorn Borg played tennis in Australia was in December 1974. It was an experience that he and the Australians would rather forget. Borg, then 18, looked more like a weekend hacker than the sport's rising star, losing to unranked players in the first round of two tournaments and bowing out in the second round of another. Borg surveyed the rubble of his fame Down Under and admitted: "I may have let the people down." The people agreed. Wrote the tennis writer for the Melbourne Age: "His reputation in Australian tennis is now not worth much more than a dollar."

Now, six years and five consecutive Wimbledon titles later, Borg's reputation in Australia is worth much more than a dollar--$749,999 more. And three-quarters of a million dollars was not all that Borg and his archrival John McEnroe divided for playing three back-to-back exhibition matches in Australia last week. There was also a solid silver tennis racquet, coated with gold and worth another $50,000, for the winner of the best two-out-of-three confrontations (two matches in Sydney, one in Melbourne).

The promotion, put together by a Melbourne rock impresario and bankrolled by a cigarette company, cost some $2 million to stage. No effort was spared to lure the two top tennis players out of their tax shelters. Sydney's Hordern Pavillion, normally a venue for pop concerts and agricultural shows, was transformed into a tennis stadium for the first two matches. Seats ranging from $36 to $3,600 (for courtside boxes) were laid out behind a row of dainty lemon dahlias. Melbourne's Kooyong Stadium was transformed even further for the final match. Kooyong is Australia's Wimbledon, the most hallowed tennis ground under the Southern Cross. But Kooyong's center court is grass, and Borg refused .to play on that fast surface. So Promoter Paul Dainty shelled out another $48,000 to build a wooden platform and synthetic surface over the grass, allowing a five-inch airspace for the grass to "breathe."

Such concessions did not go unnoticed. Cartoonist George Haddon for the Melbourne Herald drew a Kooyong groundsman scattering dollar bills over center court and commenting: "Tell Borg we're covering the court with his favorite surface." The players, however, insisted that money wasn't the issue. Said McEnroe: "It would be good to get a psychological edge by winning here." Said Borg: "John McEnroe is my threat to Wimbledon. The threat will be less if I beat him in Australia."

Borg took the first match, 6-0, 6-4, a tidy massacre that required merely 68 minutes to complete. McEnroe served poorly and seemed incapable of trading ground strokes with Borg, who played faultlessly. After the match, McEnroe said at courtside, "I hope everyone comes out again tomorrow because I can play better than that." He was right. The next night he contrived to win two additional games, falling to Borg 6-2, 6-4. "I played three times better than I did Thursday night and still won only two more games," said McEnroe. "He's outplayed me twice now, and I'll just have to try and salvage something tomorrow."

He did, though it took a while. Before 10,000 fans at Kooyong Stadium, McEnroe was leading Borg 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 in the five-set match when rain interrupted play. After the showers stopped, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser led a group of volunteers armed with towels to mop up the moisture. Play resumed, and McEnroe won the fourth set 6-4 to give him the match.

No matter who came out on top, a face-off between the game's two titans could not have failed to please the tennis-minded Australians. Besides, as McEnroe noted: "Every time we play it matters."

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