 "Bjorn Borg celebrates after his team wins in Laver Cup. Image: Reuters")
Bjorn Borg, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, has finally opened up about the dark years of his life after retirement. In his new book Heartbeats, the Swedish legend has revealed how drugs, alcohol and depression almost destroyed him, and how he even came close to death on two occasions because of overdoses.
Borg shocked the world when he retired at the age of just 25, despite winning 11 Grand Slam titles by then. He won five Wimbledon and six French Open trophies between 1974 and 1981, but stepped down after losing to John McEnroe in the 1981 Wimbledon and US Open.
Bjorn Borg on life after retirement
Borg stayed silent after his retirement for decades, but now he has admitted that life after tennis was not easy. After stepping away from the sport, Borg partied hard in America and Europe. He was introduced to cocaine in 1982 and said it gave him a rush similar to tennis.
“I didn’t keep in touch with the players. When I left tennis, I left all my friends. I left everything. Everything. And that was a huge mistake. I went into a different crowd, people who weren’t interested in sport. That’s why I started with drugs and pills and drinking,” Borg revealed.
But it soon became a habit, and in 1989, Borg suffered an accidental overdose that nearly killed him. When his then-wife tried to wake him up and failed, she had to call an ambulance. A few years later, he collapsed again after using drugs at a party in Holland and was told by doctors that he was “very close to dying.”
“My father and I were walking to the club to play the final of this exhibition tournament. And I said to him, ‘I don’t feel too good. I don’t think I can make this.’ My father said, ‘Just take it easy.’ Then I fell down on the ground, and the next thing I knew I was was waking up in hospital with tubes in me,” Borg wrote in his book as quoted by The Guardian.
“My father told me the ambulance came very quickly, and the doctor said, ‘You were very close to dying.’ That was probably the worst thing I ever did. It was terrible. When I woke up in the hospital I saw my father in front of me, and I was so embarrassed. When we flew home to Stockholm we didn’t say a word to each other. He was disappointed, sad, and I’m sure he was angry too,” he added.
Borg tried to make a comeback in the early 90s but failed to make any significant impact. Borg married his third wife Patricia in 2002 and since then he has stayed away from drugs and found some peace. In 2023, Borg suffered another setback after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgery. He undergoes regular monitoring to keep the cancer cells under check.