{"id":235922,"date":"2025-09-18T08:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/235922\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T08:24:12","slug":"bjorn-borg-talks-about-drug-use-quitting-tennis-in-an-ap-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/235922\/","title":{"rendered":"Bj\u00f6rn Borg talks about drug use, quitting tennis in an AP interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bj\u00f6rn Borg starts his new memoir, \u201cHeartbeats,\u201d with a story about being rushed to a Dutch hospital in the 1990s after overdosing on \u201calcohol, drugs, pills \u2014 my preferred ways of self-medication,\u201d and the Swedish tennis great<\/a> closes it by revealing that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good,\u201d Borg, 69, said in a recent video interview with The Associated Press from his home in Stockholm, \u201cto have a good beginning and a good ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

In between, the 292-page book, which will be released in the United States by Diversion Books on Sept. 23, contains revelations about his love life, various adventures and regrets, and the 11-time Grand Slam champion\u2019s detailed recollections of particular matches.<\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rn Borg quit tennis at age 25 because he stopped caring when he lost<\/p>\n

Famously private, Borg kept a lot to himself during his days on tour \u2014 as well as since he surprisingly retired in his 20s.<\/p>\n

He brings readers back to when, having lost the 1981 Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals to rival John McEnroe, Borg realized he was done. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll I could think was how miserable my life had become,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

He was 25 and, while he would briefly return to tennis, he never competed at another Grand Slam event.<\/p>\n

After the 1981 final at the U.S. Open<\/a>, a tournament he never won, Borg grabbed some beers and sat in the pool at a house on Long Island, where friends planned a party to celebrate a victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not upset or sad when I lost the final. And that\u2019s not me as a person. I hate to lose,\u201d he told the AP. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy head was spinning,\u201d he said, \u201cand I knew I\u2019m going to step away from tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rn Borg wasn\u2019t always calm on a tennis court<\/p>\n

Borg writes about his childhood and his relationships with his parents (and, later, his children). <\/p>\n

He writes about earning the nickname \u201cIce-Borg\u201d for calmness on court \u2014 often contrasted by fans to the more fiery McEnroe<\/a> and Jimmy Connors. And Borg writes that did not come about \u201corganically,\u201d but rather via \u201cthe bitter experiences\u201d of a 12-year-old kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI behaved so badly on the tennis court. I was swearing, cheating, behaving the worst you can imagine,\u201d he recalled in the video interview.<\/p>\n

He said his hometown tennis club banned him for six months and, when he returned, \u201cI did not open my mouth on the tennis court, because I was scared to get suspended again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBoiling inside? Yes,\u201d Borg told the AP. \u201cI had to control my feelings. … You cannot do that in one week. It took years to figure out how I should behave on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borg discusses cocaine and 2 overdoses that landed him in the hospital<\/p>\n

Borg writes about panic attacks and his drug use, which he says started in 1982.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I tried cocaine,\u201d he says in the book, \u201cI got the same kind of rush I used to get from tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also writes about \u201cthe worst shame of all,\u201d which he says came when he looked up from a hospital bed in Holland to see his father. Borg also clarifies that an earlier overdose, in 1989 in Italy, was accidental, not a suicide attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cStupid decision to be involved with this kind of thing. It really destroys you,\u201d he told the AP about drugs. \u201cI was happy to get away from tennis, to get away from that life. But I had no plan what to do. … I had no people behind me to guide me in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borg name-drops Trump, Arafat, Warhol, Hefner, Tina Turner in his memoir <\/p>\n

In all, Borg paints the picture of quite a life. <\/p>\n

There was a water-skiing shoulder injury before 1977 U.S. Open. Death threats during the 1981 U.S. Open. Getting paid in cash … and getting robbed at gunpoint. A woman claiming he was the father of her son. Coin-throwing by spectators in Rome that led him to never return. <\/p>\n

This is not the typical sports autobiography: There is a reference to getting a message to Yasser Arafat and, five pages later, the phrase \u201dAndy Warhol was someone easy to like\u201d appears. There are name-drops of Donald Trump<\/a>, Nelson Mandela, Tina Turner and \u201cmy old friend Hugh Hefner,\u201d among many, many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will be very surprised what really happened,\u201d Borg told the AP. \u201cFor me to come out (after) all these years, all I went through \u2014 I went through some difficult times \u2014 (it\u2019s) a relief for me to do this book. I feel so much better. … No secrets anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Howard Fendrich has been the AP\u2019s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/howard-fendrich<\/a>. More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bj\u00f6rn Borg starts his new memoir, \u201cHeartbeats,\u201d with a story about being rushed to a Dutch hospital in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":235923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[102604,34172,69,57,18826,117127,14188,15864,87828,6576,62,1464,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-235922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-andy-warhol","9":"tag-bjorn-borg","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-howard-fendrich","13":"tag-hugh-hefner","14":"tag-jimmy-connors","15":"tag-john-mcenroe","16":"tag-nelson-mandela","17":"tag-netherlands","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-tennis","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115224344359323052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}