Bjorn Borg is over Roger Federer and he's not afraid to show it.
The legendary Swede has shockingly put Roger Federer as his third favorite at next week's Championships behind Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, respectively. "I pick Rafael Nadal as the winner. My second choice is Novak Djokovic, and my third choice is Roger," said the 5-time Wimbledon champion.
And why, might you ask, did the Swede make such a public claim?A year ago, I would have had Roger as my favourite, but that was then. Nadal and Djokovic are playing much better tennis than they were a year ago. I think that Roger is going to be the No 1 player at the end of the year anyway. But for him to beat those guys at Wimbledon, he needs to play much better than he did last summer. He knows that he is going to have to play some unbelievable tennis to win again. This is the most open Wimbledon in years.
Bjorn also said he wouldn't be surprised if the top-ranked Swiss followed his lead and hung up his Wilson racquets early, even by next year:
I think Roger will probably carry on playing tennis, but if he retired next year that wouldn't surprise me. He has been through so much, he has done so much, he has been professional, he's been working hard, he's been winning everything. It probably won't happen, but if Roger suddenly decides to retire that wouldn't shock me at all. People expect Roger to win the whole time, and that's both mentally and physically tiring. It's not going to be like it used to be, when he won almost every single match he played. That time has gone.Has Bjorn lost his marbles or is he still reeling from the embarrassment of publicly choosing Fed as his pick for the Roland Garros title on the eve of that match? He picks Fed to win on his least favored surface then picks him to come in third where he's a 5-time defending, grass-loving champion.
It seems like passive-aggressiveness and/or fair-weather fandom. Either way, that sucks Bjorn.
(image via Getty)
Bjorn is just discouraged by the way Fed lost at Roland Garros like a lot of Fed supporters. He didn't even show up for that final and it looks like the pressure to constantly win is getting to him but every champion goes thru that. Every champion in every sport has gone thru a drought. Fed is young, has a great game and has been lucky enough to be healthy most of the time so people need to just be patient and not band wagon jump.
ReplyDelete-Lisa
Wow, I think Bjorg has taken the role of "Tennis Oracle" a little too seriously. Talking about Roger retiring next year is pretty strange, and kind of like "hint, hint."
ReplyDeleteIt reveals more about Bjorg than Roger - I guess we know why he retired. Didn't have the guts to take some losses
Roger's not going anywhere, Bjorn.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think that French loss is going to change the way Federer approaches the game. He just caught a guy that would've beaten anyone at that moment and I really think he realizes that.
I would be shocked, SHOCKED, if Federer didn't win at least five more titles before the end of the year, including at least one Slam, probably Wimbledon.
I mostly agree with Borg. I don't think Roger will be retiring anytime soon, but I really do think he will have trouble winning any slam from here on out, and that this year's Wimbledon won't be his. That doesn't mean he isn't a great tennis player. It is just really hard to be that good for that long, and to keep it up after you have passed 25 years of age. I wish him all the luck in the world.
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