Bjorn Borg vs. Rod Laver

More examples of Bjorn Borg's speed, against Rod Laver at Hilton Head, October 1976. Borg won 6-3, 7-5. Pancho Gonzales and Chris Schenkel announcing.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Borg
• Laver
• tennis

[valjean1ful]

the grass was very green

[krosero]

@valjean1ful

It was green clay (Har-Tru).

[tyruk]

The way Borg could move on clay...there's never been anything like it.

[nocode61]

@superman11978 Well tennis is very different from 4 min mile. A lot of rules have changed especially during last decade, which includes slowing down surfaces and balls. Grinding strokes from the baseline is better than before but other aspect got worse in my opinion. Have you seen top 10 players volley lately? Most of them look like a club level player. In terms of running mile, if the track is replaced with sand or ice, how would you compare runners from regular tracks?

[Pjetoles]

It is strange to see a lefty playing one-handed backhand

[aryaldo]

Meanwhile somewhere in Switzerland a certain Mr. Federer was carrying the seed of greatness...

[Ceremare]

tarckbear is one of the contributors who noticed that Laver was nearly 40 when he played this game. I preferred watching the game when the rackets were wooden. The racket is just a parameter. The diversity of shots is wider with the old racket and so tennis was a more complex sport. Also, I prefer to watch small prize matches; there were more laughs when Newcombe, Roche, Rosewall and the others played; especially in the doubles. Isn't that what it's for? Entertainment & sport combined.

[Ceremare]

tarckbear is one of the contributors who noticed that Laver was nearly 40 when he played this game. I preferred watching the game when the rackets were wooden. The racket is just a parameter. The diversity of shots is wider with the old racket and so tennis was a more complex sport. Also, I prefer to watch small prize matches; there were more laughs when Newcombe, Roche, Rosewall and the others played; especially in the doubles. Isn't that what it's for? Entertainment & sport combined.

[Dom20002007]

@Aaronthegreatest wooden rackets arnt actually that bad. I was expecting them to be much harder to use but i found them to be easy enough!

[superman11978]

Tennis, like any sport, gets better with time, as the bar is constantly raised and new players learn from their idols of the past, who learned from their idols before them. It's like the 4 minute mile. No one thought it could be done. Then someone did it. Then suddenly everyone was doing it, because they knew it could be done. The bar just keeps getting raised by tiny little increments.

But there's no one, NO ONE, in tennis today who'd run backwards and get that lob like Borg did.

[aonutube]

They could play like this with that racket. Superb!

[lachatseb]

@valjean1ful yeah, the grass was greener these days!