With a player's strike stilling the American pastime, John McEnroe became the focus of attention for the American media.  He was lucky to play on July 4th - he had almost been ejected from the tournament for his behavior during his first round match against Tim Gullikson.

     With a storm of controversy surrounding him and his antics, he managed to careen into the finals despite not playing his finest tennis.  The top-seeded Borg cruised to the finals, riding a 41-game winning streak at Wimbledon that had begun back in 1976.

     Though it was hard to top the 1980 duel, these two prizefighters came close.  McEnroe lost the first set 6-4, then won the second in a tie-breaker.  In the third set, McEnroe lost a point on a close call that he clearly disagreed with; as he fumed to himself, the crowd waited in anticipation of a typical Johnny Mac meltdown.   But he contained himself, and went back to the baseline - as the crowd cheered his restraint, he raised his arms in good-natured self-mockery.

     With the cloud of his antics lifted for now, the match progressed to another level of excitement.  At one point, McEnroe was down 4-5, 15-30 and serving - the set, and the match turned on what followed next:

     McEnroe executed a clean serve and volley, which the line judge called safe, to level the game at 30-30 ... but chair umpire Bob Jenkins overruled the line judge and called the ball out.  He awarded the point to Borg, making the score 15-40 and giving the Swede two break points.  Historically, this was a scenario was ripe for an explosion; but McEnroe did no more than confirm the call with Jenkins, and returned to his play.

     He hit the next serve cleanly, under control, and played a nice volley, then put the point away on an easy overhead.  Then he steeled himself and saved the next break point on a terrific wide serve.

     McEnroe fought to win that set in a tie-breaker, and then went on to win the fourth set, and the match.

     A crestfallen Borg wouldn't speak to reporters after the match - the trouble he had had with McEnroe's wide serve to his backhand was to him a clear sign that he would be losing McEnroe frequently from then on.

     Two months after his defeat at Wimbledon, Borg lost again to McEnroe at Flushing Meadow.  It all unraveled quickly for him after that - already stretched by the demands of being at the top of the game, tired by the attention he had drawn for all of these years, he was now disheartened by his inability to vanquish this new challenger.

     Borg effectively walked away from the game after that, never again winning a pro tournament.