Bloodless.
Spring broken.
Ashleigh Barty, winner of the Australian Open last January, surprised the tennis world by announcing that she was ending her career.
A hasty end reminiscent of that of the Swede Björn Borg.
On June 23, 1983, Björn Borg took the world of tennis on the wrong foot by announcing his retirement.
The Swede is 26 years old.
He won Roland-Garros 6 times and Wimbledon 5 times.
World number 1 in 1977, he also won the Davis Cup.
A professional at 17, he simply had the feeling of having done the trick.
He no longer had the essence of the motivation allowing him to meet the challenges of everyday life.
At the height of his glory, he who, through his game (his two-handed backhand, his physique supported by brazen legs, surmounted by the shoulders of a mover), his look (his headband, his Fila shirt, his wood, its Christ figure) propelled tennis into another sporting dimension (with its structure it was a pioneer in the field of training), economic and media,
was suddenly confronted with the dry breakdown.
The requirement attached day after day, like Sisyphus, since his adolescence to the construction of performance has become unbearable for the first rock star of tennis.
“
He discovered that he didn't have the necessary motivation.
He discovered that he really didn't have the will to fight anymore, to train four hours a day and keep going.
You get to a situation where you don't have the fighting spirit that you need to have, you know
, ”summarized Lennart Bergelin, his trainer.
The breaking point dates from the final lost against John McEnroe at the 1981 US Open, occurring after that lost against the American prodigy at Wimbledon.
"
After John McEnroe's victory, I went straight to the house I owned then on Long Island.
I jumped into the pool like a vacationer, he will say later.
There, while lounging, I realized that the motivation was no longer there.
That day, aged 25, I decided to stop my career.
Decision that I have never regretted.
I had been number 1, becoming number 2 did not interest me
“, summed up the Swede in remarks reported by Le Parisien.
His last match remains a defeat against Henri Leconte in the 2nd round in Monte-Carlo, in 1983. Björn Borg will never say much more.
His composure and his impassive side had fascinated the spectators and impressed his rivals, he would turn his back, leaving the mystery intact and offering the magic of the strong times lived as a legacy.
At the forefront in many fields (physical and technical), Björn Borg had also illustrated the adored strength and the unrecognized extreme fragility of the gladiators of the courts, thrown into full light.
Borg had sublimated everything, endured everything.
From light to shadow.
The journey and the suffering that, many years later, led Ashleigh Barty (winner of Roland-Garros 2019, Wimbledon 2021 and the Open
Australia 2022) heading for the exit.
She who had already put her career on the courts on hold for seventeen months to practice cricket, before returning to walk her singular game made of variations, inspirations, flashes.
Far from the stereotypical games practiced on the circuit.
In 1991, Björn Borg had attempted a comeback.
In vain.
He saw the defeats parade: 12 in a row.
Before finally turning the page in 1993.
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