1981 Wimbledon final, McEnroe and Borg

Here you can see that the official BBC version of this match is actually incomplete. As best as I can tell, about 40 service faults are missing.

When this point is about to start, one ballboy is stationed at each net post. After the brief close-up on Borg, both ballboys are now at the net post on the right.

This point is at 1-2 in the first set. It's taken from the DVD sold at Amazon; the DVD cover reads, "The Full Length Color Version."

(McEnroe won the match 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-4).

There is a similar instance when McEnroe reaches 6-3 in the third-set tiebreak.

I counted the serves in this BBC version, and I have McEnroe serving at 74% for the whole match, Borg at 69%.

The press reports at the time had much lower figures. The New York Times has McEnroe serving at only 62% (and it was regarded as a great serving performance), with Borg at 55%. The Washington Post put them at 61% and 57%, respectively.

Both newspapers, and Sports Illustrated, report that McEnroe missed 1 first serve over the course of the two tiebreaks. It was probably that point at 6-3 in the third-set tiebreak.

Altogether I counted about 40 more successful "first serves" than the press reports. It makes the match about 10 minutes shorter than it should be.

I have not been able to find a complete version of the match.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• BBC
• tennis
• Wimbledon
• Borg
• McEnroe
• Standing
• Room
• Only
• Entertainment
• Federer
• Nadal
• Murray

[dmoore2310]

why aren't you working for scotland yard?