THE RIVALRY IS BACK ON!
Borg 2 McEnroe 0 as Laver Cup begins
THE filming of the Borg McEnroe biopic, coming out this weekend, took place largely in the Czech capital.
So it was with some irony that the two real life characters could be found in Prague yesterday, on either side of the umpire in the captains’ chairs for the inaugural Laver Cup.
Thirty seven years after their classic Wimbledon final is recreated for the cinema, the two were overseeing the Europe and World teams, both now sharing heads of grey hair and even tempers.
It was the ever phlegmatic Borg who was happier with the opening session of this Ryder Cup-type event that is the brainchild of Roger Federer, with the heavy favourites taking a 2-0 lead.
When Federer and his management group conceived the idea they might have envisaged a more glamorous opening match than world No 72 Frances Tiafoe against the famously unexpressive Marin Cilic. The rangy Croat was to win 7-6, 7-6, followed by Dominic Thiem narrowly taking down American giant John Isner 6-7, 7-6 and 10-7 in the deciding ‘Champions’ tiebreaker being used here.
While few in the tennis world are quite sure how to take an event desperate not to be viewed as an exhibition, the scorelines were evidence that little quarter is likely to be given in these matches.
With a crowd of 16,000 inside the O2 Arena definitely engaged, the whole feel and presentation was similar to that of the ATP World Tour Finals every November at London’s sister venue — arguably a bit too similar. Thiem said afterwards: ‘The stadium was packed and I was maybe a bit more nervous because the players are also responsible for the team, and on the tour, if you lose, it’s fine, it’s only for yourself.’ His match will not, however, go down in any record books or official stats, not until Federer (below) and fellow promoters can persuade the governing bodies to give official backing, which is not going to happen any time soon. And you could not help wondering if the great Swiss, somewhere in his head, might have been wanting to see America get on the board, as in the first year the last thing he would want is an embarrassingly one-sided contest. Exhibition or not, there was still the interesting sideshow of him and Rafael Nadal making the odd courtside visit to Borg and Thiem to offer tactical advice. The non-playing members spent the matches on a half moonshaped sofa set back from the court. Captain McEnroe was calm, while Borg claimed later he found it quite stressful underneath his inscrutable visage.
‘I think I was more nervous than when I was playing, because when you play you have control,’ he said. ‘They asked me several times in Sweden to be Davis Cup captain but I said no. When they asked me to be a captain for Europe, I said yes immediately. It’s an honour.’
While Borg said he had broadly enjoyed the new film, McEnroe was less impressed.
‘I don’t know why they couldn’t make it accurate,’ he said. ‘They made up some stuff. If they wanted to make me look like a jerk, they could have come up with something far better than they came up with, in my humble estimation.’
Last night the third singles and first doubles were being played, with eight rubbers of progressively higher value in points terms taking place over the weekend.