Former Britain tennis player
John Lloyd recalled one of
the incidents which led to unimaginable fame for Sweden’s
Bjorn Borg.
The 67-year-old is often described as one of the greatest
men’s singles tennis players in the history of the Open era.
Lloyd, who is also the ex-husband of the former world number
one Chris Evert, revealed an interesting incident which led to the rise in
Borg’s popularity.
"In those days obviously there was no internet, no cell
phones, no nothing like that and he created a storm one year at Wimbledon,” he
said. “I still don’t to this day, don’t really know how he did it because there
was no social media to publicise what he was doing.
"All of a sudden he had these women screaming in the
crowd, these young women they called him ‘Teeny Bopper.’ It sort of grew the
first day they were I don’t know fifty that were all screaming from different
sorts of the call on Court No. 2 and then the next day he played and it grew to
200 and 300.
"Next minute they had police guards escorts which in
those days it never happened now of course it does. He became a sensation and
he was like the tennis players’ ‘Beatle,’" Lloyd stated.”
Borg ended up winning as many as 15 Grand Slam titles in his
illustrious career which lasted for more than two decades.
His most successful competition was the French Open where he
ended up lifting the title six times — in 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981.