Originally posted by licensedcoach
View Post
What's that old saying? You have to learn the rules before you can break them...
Inexplicable...why Borg chose to make a comeback, inexplicable how he chose to do it with wood.
I'll tell you a true story: Back in the mid eighties when working in a tourist resort in the Algarve, Portugal, I coached a former executive from Donnay. Donnay just had recently gone bust.
He told me Donnay had put all their eggs in one basket with Borg. Borg was making them a fortune and so they gave him whatever he wanted. When they made suggestions to Borg that he might try newer technology, he wasn't interested. As a result, Donnay didn't bother to invest as heavily as other racket companies in newer technology because the world's most bankable player showed no interest in its benefits, none.
The Donnay executive told me that Borg was similar in other areas of the bandwagon. Borg always insisted on wearing his pinstripe FILA shirt at Wimbledon. He liked to wear the same shorts and disliked changing his style of Diadora shoes too often either. Borg liked things to always remain the same.
Borg's stubbornness stopped the companies associated with him from progressing. Donnay went bust when Borg suddenly walked out of the game, leaving them stranded with their antiquated rackets. Donnay had counted on Borg being around another five years. The executive lost his job and didn't have too many good things to say of Borg, nor Donnay's "eggs in one basket" decision making.
I did find it understandable why Borg eight years later returned to the game saying he "needed to play tennis". I kind of got that. What I couldn't understand is why he insisted on using a wooden racket. Wooden rackets had ceased to be manufactured by then so he had to commission a company in England to make him 500 rackets made from ash...Donnay rackets were made from ash.
I found Borg's comeback embarrassing to watch. Not only was he a shadow of the player he once was, he was also using an antique racket that left him with no chance whatsoever of beating anyone. It broke my heart. Borg seemed totally unperturbed. He didn't seem to care less.
Inexplicable...why Borg chose to make a comeback, inexplicable how he chose to do it with wood.
I'll tell you a true story: Back in the mid eighties when working in a tourist resort in the Algarve, Portugal, I coached a former executive from Donnay. Donnay just had recently gone bust.
He told me Donnay had put all their eggs in one basket with Borg. Borg was making them a fortune and so they gave him whatever he wanted. When they made suggestions to Borg that he might try newer technology, he wasn't interested. As a result, Donnay didn't bother to invest as heavily as other racket companies in newer technology because the world's most bankable player showed no interest in its benefits, none.
The Donnay executive told me that Borg was similar in other areas of the bandwagon. Borg always insisted on wearing his pinstripe FILA shirt at Wimbledon. He liked to wear the same shorts and disliked changing his style of Diadora shoes too often either. Borg liked things to always remain the same.
Borg's stubbornness stopped the companies associated with him from progressing. Donnay went bust when Borg suddenly walked out of the game, leaving them stranded with their antiquated rackets. Donnay had counted on Borg being around another five years. The executive lost his job and didn't have too many good things to say of Borg, nor Donnay's "eggs in one basket" decision making.
I did find it understandable why Borg eight years later returned to the game saying he "needed to play tennis". I kind of got that. What I couldn't understand is why he insisted on using a wooden racket. Wooden rackets had ceased to be manufactured by then so he had to commission a company in England to make him 500 rackets made from ash...Donnay rackets were made from ash.
I found Borg's comeback embarrassing to watch. Not only was he a shadow of the player he once was, he was also using an antique racket that left him with no chance whatsoever of beating anyone. It broke my heart. Borg seemed totally unperturbed. He didn't seem to care less.
Now that I understand the "Swedish Psyche" I truly understand the inner workings of Björn Borg much better. It wasn't so much that he was such a great sport or that he was calm. He was just being Swedish. A Swede doesn't want to draw too much attention to himself and God forbid…be involved in anything remotely controversial. But there is also the paradoxical complement to the "Swedish Psyche" and that is the inner Viking. Obviously Borg had this connection in his DNA as well as his culturally engineered social personna. He blended the two to perfection and came up with the perfect tennis personality. An iconic version all of himself. The Borg Version.
Borg's fixation with the wooden racquets is perfectly understandable. Swede's have this fixated idea about tradition and there isn't any wavering or waffling in their adherence to certain fixed fundamentals. I believe that Borg began working his way up the ladder basically at the very same time that tennis went "Open". His foundation was in the Classic Game even though he certainly gave it his own artistic interpretation. The two handed backhand and the strong gripped forehand…the forerunner of the modern game. His foundation was deeply entrenched in the white clothes, white balls and wooden racquets and that is precisely the manner in which he ate his way up the food chain in the professional game of tennis.
His exit coincidentally came at a time when the dyke burst in tennis and the whole game went to the new equipment. The leaking started sometime in the mid 70's and gradually it was leaking like a sieve until it burst wide open. He left just before the burst. His timing proved that he was somewhat ahead of the game and knew what was coming. All of the top players felt this reverence for the traditional and classic game and the equipment was a huge part of this. The new equipment was a blasphemy to those that were on the top of the mountain and they were defending the integrity of the sport against the hordes trying to take their spot at the top. There was John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Björn Borg at the top waving their little wands at the intruders howitzers. Much as you see in this video of Thomas Högstedt and Björn practicing. A combination of some rust and the artificial advantage that Hogstedt has on account of his equipment renders the once god-like Borg to look somewhat amateurish. As you yourself noted in the Connors clip…there was no place Connors could go to get the invincible Swede off balance.
Surely it was a combination of things that led Björn to quit the game prematurely. But paramount was his feeling that he had been gyped out of his legacy by the engineering and the money that equated too.
Thanks for your invaluable insight into the workings of Donnay and Borg. Obviously the two fates went hand in hand and shame on Donnay for not knowing Björn better than that. But on the other hand the cool arctic Swedish psyche is virtually impenetrable from the outside. I am on the inside just a bit…the Swedes here cut me the "McEnroe Pass" as it is. I continue to amuse them but must maintain caution to not upset their Swedish sensibility. It is important to know the difference between a VIP and being a guest.
Suggest you do the same.
Leave a comment: