World Team Tennis Coup for New York City: Borg Versus McEnroe
It was supposed to be Jimmy Connors versus John McEnroe in a World Team Tennis match back again in New York City home of their famous U.S. Open matches. Unfortunately, Connors suffered a knee injury and couldn’t play. Instead, Connors was replaced by Bjorn
Borg… what a treat for New York tennis fans, i.e. Borg versus McEnroe! Borg, playing for the Philadelphia Freedoms took on McEnroe, playing for the New York Sportimes. It was the first World Team Tennis Match for Bjorn Borg in seventeen years. The evening’s matches also featured another multiple Grand Slam champion, Martina Hingis, who joined McEnroe on the New York Sportimes.
The evening’s matches were a fundraiser for the Johnny Mac Tennis Project to help raise funds to provide scholarships, coaching, transportation and other financial assistance to qualified young tennis players in the greater New York area to attend the John McEnroe Tennis Academy at Sportime Randall’s Island. All in all, the near sell-out crowd was treated to some entertaining “warm-up” doubles matches before the “main event”, i.e. one Team Tennis set - first to five games, featuring Borg and McEnroe, which fittingly ended in a tie-breaker won by McEnroe! McEnroe, who plays more than Borg these days, looked sharper for most of the match, but Borg served well and hit some of his pinpoint backhands in the end of the set. There was also a live auction between sets to raise additional funds and the evening ended with the Johnny Smyth Band, i.e. McEnroe and friends playing some tunes!
The evening’s matches were a fundraiser for the Johnny Mac Tennis Project to help raise funds to provide scholarships, coaching, transportation and other financial assistance to qualified young tennis players in the greater New York area to attend the John McEnroe Tennis Academy at Sportime Randall’s Island. All in all, the near sell-out crowd was treated to some entertaining “warm-up” doubles matches before the “main event”, i.e. one Team Tennis set - first to five games, featuring Borg and McEnroe, which fittingly ended in a tie-breaker won by McEnroe! McEnroe, who plays more than Borg these days, looked sharper for most of the match, but Borg served well and hit some of his pinpoint backhands in the end of the set. There was also a live auction between sets to raise additional funds and the evening ended with the Johnny Smyth Band, i.e. McEnroe and friends playing some tunes!
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