Bjorn Borg: 'Stockholm is special'

Friday 12 June 2009, 10:00 GMT

Bjorn Borg was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1956 and went on to become one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He won 11 Grand Slam singles titles between 1974 and 1981 (five at Wimbledon and six at the French Open). His achievements on the grass courts of Wimbledon, and his legendary battles with John McEnroe, were some of the finest men's single contests ever witnessed in the modern era. 

Growing up in SÖdertÄlje, near Stockholm, Borg spent much of his childhood sailing on the Stockholm archipelago. In this exclusive interview, which appears in Life At The Extreme, the official souvenir programme of the Volvo Ocean Race, Bjorn talks of those early days, and reveals why Stockholm has a special place in his heart. The Volvo Ocean Race fleet sets off on the short sprint from Marstrand to Stockholm on Sunday at 11:00 GMT (13:00 local).

By Bjorn Borg

My very first memory of Stockholm is of water. We used to go out on the boat every summer when I was small; say from the age of three or four. When Rune, my father, was on holiday in July, we went out on the boat with the whole family.

We used to sail from SÖdertÄlje where I grew up, to Stockholm and then out to the Stockholm archipelago. We would pass through a lock before Stockholm, sail past Stockholm City Hall, pass through another lock and then out to the archipelago, towards the island of MÖja.

We always took the same route and I think that’s why my first memory of Stockholm is of water. When I was thirteen years old, Stockholm took on a new significance for me because that’s when I started tennis training at Salk sports centre in Alvik.

I started playing tennis when I was eight years old; but I remember the first time I took the train from Stockholm from SÖdertÄlje and standing in Stockholm Central Station and then taking the underground to Alvik.

After training my parents picked me up and I did my homework in the car on the way home. When I left school after ninth grade to focus completely on tennis, I got to know the Engblom family who lived above their own hairdressing salon close by the Salk sports centre.

The family let me stay overnight with them so that I didn’t have to travel back to SÖdertÄlje every night. I think about how much training I have done; thousands upon thousands of hours on the tennis courts at the Salk sports centre and the Royal Tennis Hall. But that’s the way it was.

I loved tennis and because it was my all consuming passion I didn’t see the training as a sacrifice. I think you have to have that level of interest if you are going to have any chance of succeeding. Your heart has got to be in it.

I played a lot of tennis in and around Stockholm, but it took some time for me to win the Stockholm Open. It was important for me to win on my home territory because there is that bit of added pressure and I really wanted to win it.

I suppose it is one of my favourite victories when I eventually won it in 1980. When I moved to Monaco in 1974 I hadn’t even turned 19. And by the time I returned home, 11 years later, I had seen the world and just about everything else.

I was given the opportunity to travel and live anywhere I wanted to, but it never felt natural to me. Stockholm and Sweden was where I felt at home.

In my heart I always felt Swedish and that’s the way it has always been. I love Stockholm and the contact I have with SÖdertÄlje. It is close to my heart.

As I mentioned before, when I think of Stockholm I think of water. I don’t have a special place of my own in Stockholm, all of it is special to me.

Interview: Rijkard Bjorke

This article appears in Life At The Extreme, the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 Official Souvenir Programme. Available to download here in four languages.

For more information, vist the official Stockholm stopover site http://www.oceanracestockholm.se/