[announcer] Sinner!
[Sinner]
Searching myself on internet,
and I could see that there
is an actual number
next to my name,
and I said, "Just 10,000
something points are missing
to become number one
in the world."
Being world number one,
this is what dreams are made of,
so I was extremely happy
and super proud.
[Becker] For players,
world ranking, it's our bible.
It's what
we check Monday morning.
[Newcombe] To say
you were number one in the world
is something
pretty damn special.
Even if you got there for
a week, it was still amazing.
I saw him play, I remember him,
he was number one in the world.
Everybody wants to
be the best player.
Once I got a taste
of being number one,
I was like, "I'm not
going to let this go."
But to stay there
is five times as hard.
You're getting hunted down.
♪ They're coming for me ♪
Winning was everything,
and the only problem
that I had was with you.
I enjoyed chasing number one
more than being chased.
There was a bullseye
on my back, and I like that.
♪ I'll show them what I've got ♪
When you are playing,
I think you've got to be
a bit of an as*h*le.
They call me a son of a b*tch.
[commentator]
Oh, it's incredible.
We push each other to the limits
and we help each other
to create a great story.
Alright, I'm going to try this,
and it's not going to be easy.
It's one of the things in
my career that I'm proud of,
that nothing came easily for me.
[Safin] It's not about
how you hit the ball,
it's the state of mind.
It's like a lot
of things going on,
but you need to keep on moving,
keep on moving.
And ultimately the love for it.
If you don't
love the game enough,
you're never going to make it.
{\an8}[speaking Spanish]
You give up
a certain amount of childhood,
but you wanted to do it.
You could
call all of that sacrifice.
I would call it clarity
of being the best of yourself.
You need
to have all the ingredients.
{\an8}If one is missing,
you're not going to get there.
{\an8}[speaking Spanish]
You can always do it if
you really have a strong will.
Everything is possible
in tennis, step by step.
I'll work my way through it.
{\an8}Being the Guga...
{\an8}the surfer, tennis player,
{\an8}and I knew you are ready
to be number one.
To stay there, you've got
to keep doing all the hard work,
all the one percenters
that gave you the opportunity
to get there in the first place.
What separates number one
sometimes from number 100
is so minute that
you can't even see it.
So, whatever has gotten
these 29 guys to number one
has that little piece of minute
in there that you can't see.
[producer]
OK, come on in.
So now, I'm going to
give you a trivia question.
Since the inception
of the ATP rankings,
there have been 29 men
who have been number one.
I did not know that.
That's not so many, actually.
[producer]
Tell me how many you can name.
We're doing it with everybody.
I'm not picking on you.
Oh. Yeah, hard one.
I don't think I can name
all of them,
but I will probably
get to 20 or something.
Ilie Nastase.
The first one was Ilie Nastase.
-Newcombe.
-John Newcombe.
First name that comes up
is Jimmy Connors.
-Connors.
-Borg.
-Björn Borg.
-Björn Borg. My idol.
McEnroe.
Who else did I play
that I lost to?
-Lendl.
-I took it from Lendl.
-Mats Wilander.
-Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker.
-Becker.
-Courier.
-Pete Sampras.
-Pete Sampras.
How many have I mentioned?
-[muttering]
-Uh, okay.
I wish I'd prepared for this.
Okay, let me think back.
Who else was there?
My generation
would be myself, Andre.
-Agassi.
-Agassi.
-Muster.
-Muster. Oh, I'm doing great.
I'm thinking about my period.
-Rios.
-Rios.
-Moya.
-Then Kafelnikov.
-Kafelnikov.
-Myself.
Was Rafter number one? No.
Myself, sneakily.
Um, hmm.
Give me a hint.
-Where is he from?
-Um, a Russian?
-You don't know?
-Safin.
Marat Safin.
Well, back then,
in 2000, it was Guga.
-Gustavo Kuerten.
-Kuerten.
-Hewitt.
-Hewitt.
He beat me so many times.
Was there another Spanish guy?
Juan Carlos Ferrero.
-Yes.
-How many I have?
Six more. Oh, my God.
So I'm like, what, at 19, 20?
I sort of feel the challenge,
and I want to go keep going.
Don't tell me,
don't tell me, don't tell me.
-[producer] No hint?
-No.
Oh, Roddick.
I think I'm done
with Americans there.
Of course, the good
and the great, so that's--
The Federer era,
obviously, early 2000,
and then it's pretty obvious
who was number one in the world.
-Roger.
-Federer.
-Roger.
-Rafa.
-Nadal.
-Djokovic.
Djokovic,
sort of the golden generation.
-We have Andy.
-Andy.
Murray.
I think Murray might
have got there, too.
-100%?
-Yes, good man.
OK, let's
go with the recent ones.
-Me.
-Medvedev.
-Carlos.
-Alcaraz.
-Alcaraz.
-Sinner.
-Sinner.
-Sinner.
I'm going to be so
disappointed when I...
OK, I'm giving up now.
[woman]
OK, you want to see the list?
These are all 29.
-OK.
-Andy Roddick was number one?
Safin. f*ck.
Sorry, Marat. Absolutely
should have remembered you.
Wilander.
God, this is embarrassing.
Courier. What the hell?
Sorry, Jim.
Agassi, I forgot.
Sampras, I forgot.
How could
I forget these players?
[Sinner] It's amazing
to see all these names,
and at the very last one,
it's me, so...
[crowd cheering]
{\an8}We prepared a few videos
for the celebration
{\an8}of Jannik becoming number one...
{\an8}Jannik Sinner, congratulations.
Hey, Jannik,
many congratulations.
Congrats on getting
to world number one.
The video from John Mac,
which is always a lot
of fun to hear from.
{\an8}Jannik, look, you know, I'm
wearing this shirt that says,
{\an8}"I'm never wrong,"
and I'm never wrong about this.
{\an8}You are a class act.
You are a great young kid.
Welcome to the club.
And that sparkled this idea of,
you've got
this amazing pool of talent
through different generations.
How can we celebrate them?
How can we elevate the ultimate
achievement in tennis?
To become number one
means consistency, resilience.
It's a different challenge.
[reporter] Tennis, the jumbo
jet sport of the 1970s,
heralds its heroes noisily.
{\an8}[Newcombe]
Before 1972, players had no say
{\an8}in what was happening in
the game and how it was run.
[Drucker]
As the game was growing,
it was kind of like a land grab.
And there
were the national federations
and there were term directors.
{\an8}See, everyone's trying
to jockey for position
{\an8}because everybody knows
there's gold to be had.
{\an8}It was so clear that
we needed to have a say,
{\an8}we wanted to have a say,
and it was going to be helpful
to the game if we had a say.
And that
was the basis for us saying,
"Hey, we need to get together
to try to form
a players' association."
And of course, this was scaring
the hell out of the officials.
"The players
are forming a union.
I mean,
how could they do this?"
[Drysdale] So, the players met
under the stadium
at Forest Hills.
It was no Ritz-Carlton.
Everybody agreed there
needed to be an association.
And they voted me
as the first president.
[Newcombe]
And now that we had the ATP,
we were more in control
of our own destiny.
We thought that it was essential
that we create a ranking list.
[Evans] Incredibly,
there was no ranking system
before the ATP was formed.
{\an8}Before then,
two journalists decided
{\an8}who was number one, two, three,
four, five, six in the world.
They were very serious about it.
They went into all the details
of who'd won what,
but that was it.
So first item on the agenda
was to create a ranking system,
which we did in 1973.
And they come with the idea
of these computer rankings
based on 52 weeks of results,
and matches
and results are weighted
depending on the significance
of the tournament.
[Evans]
And the beauty of it was
the ranking list is
untouched by human hand.
The only way you can get
anywhere on that ranking list
is by walking on a tennis court
and winning a tennis match.
So now there's all these
official machinations happening.
And Ilie Nastase is on
a hot streak.
{\an8}And boom, the first ever
ATP number one is that lunatic?
It's Nastase?
[Nastase chuckling]
Hi, my name is Ilie.
{\an8}[woman]
Do you know why you're here?
{\an8}Because I'm
an old tennis player,
{\an8}that's why, I guess.
{\an8}The oldest one.
Well, at that time,
they said that there's
going to be a computer,
because before, the newspaper
was making the rankings
of the world,
they called me one day, "You're
number one, come to New York"
because they have to
give you the first number one.
[reporter]
This is quite an honor.
You're called a doer
for your tennis feats.
How do you feel about this?
Well, I'm very pleased
to receive this trophy.
[Evans] You have never met
a more outrageous, talented,
infuriating character
ever to walk on a tennis court
than Ilie Nastase.
[Drysdale] He was crazy.
When you played against him,
he was going to do
anything that he could
to interrupt your rhythm
and your joy.
He was going
to try to intimidate you
to the extent that he could.
[announcer]
Ilie throws a ball at him.
Someone won't shake hands,
now the referee...
Nastase's game was nasty.
[chuckling]
That was his nickname.
He could be an imbecile,
but he could also be impish
and he was charming.
He could
be foul-mouthed to the point
where really
it made your toes curl.
All that Balkan,
fiery temperament came out.
{\an8}I used to live in a tennis club.
{\an8}My father was taking
care of the ground,
{\an8}and I was a ball boy
at the beginning.
For me, tennis was a passion,
more than passion, love.
And if you love something,
there's no way
you cannot make it.
[Evans] Ilie Nastase
was a complete genius.
He had a great first serve.
He had feathery touch.
He moved like a leopard.
[commentator]
That's it!
Multi-talented,
had terrific hands and feet,
very quick around the court.
If you're watching him play,
you say,
"Well, where'd that come from?"
He wins the US Open on grass,
wins the French Open
without the loss of a set.
{\an8}In my opinion, he could
have been the best of all time.
{\an8}If he would have had
the mind to go along with it.
The game came to him
so naturally
that with his movement,
he never
had to work at anything.
[commentator]
He's a lyrical soul,
a free spirit possessing
extraordinary flair.
His game was beautiful,
and he was beautiful.
You see shots
of Nastase on posters,
and he's flying through the air
and he's cupping around a volley
and he's still got
this sort of smile.
[Evans]
The most generous man.
I mean, God knows
how much money he spent
taking people out to dinner,
and he always picked up the tab.
He is one of
the greatest personalities
and players
the game has ever seen.
{\an8}I think 40 weeks, probably, 40.
I don't know if it's a lot
or a little.
I know that after me
was John Newcombe.
[Drucker]
So Ilie Nastase,
kind of
the first of the contemporary,
hothead, gives way to
the cool as a cucumber,
swashbuckling, vintage
Australian with the mustache,
John Newcombe.
I tend to look at Grand Slams
rather than the overall
tournaments during the year.
I never sought to be number one.
I had other goals.
John Newcombe was the last
of an incredible golden era
of 25 years
of Australian dominance.
Rod Laver, Roy Emerson,
Fred Stolle, Ken Rosewall,
and they're kind of like
the merry band of brothers.
And the joke of the Australians
was first to the net
and first to the bar.
Us Aussies
used to love to party.
And if we did party
a bit too much one night,
we had a rule that
the next day you'd train
two or three times harder
than you normally would.
I don't know that
there's anybody on the tour
who enjoyed the tennis life
more than John Newcombe.
[Evans]
He was a matinee idol, really,
you know, with the mustache,
which he didn't have
when he first started playing,
but he turned into a trademark.
{\an8}And he was so synonymous
with tennis and Australia.
{\an8}And he was
all over the commercials.
You know,
he was a big character.
With a custom loan
from Custom Credit,
Peter and Carol put in
this superb new kitchen,
with repayments less
than you might think.
[Hewitt]
If you walk around Australia,
everyone knows,
oh, that's John Newcombe.
{\an8}He's known as a, you know,
an Australian larrikin
{\an8}and someone who was tough
as nails on the court.
[Newcombe] I had a pretty
well-rounded game,
a very good
first and second serve,
strong volleys, a big forehand.
I can't keep up!
He won the Australian, you know,
he was Wimbledon champion,
he was US Open champion.
And at that time, you know,
was one of the top two,
three serving volley players
in the game.
[Carillo]
Newcombe was coming in,
no matter what,
he was coming in.
And usually a first volley
is pretty defensive,
but he was so damn quick
and so alert to the moment.
He knew what he was going
to create from the serve on.
[Newcombe]
From a young age,
I'd really
always been strong mentally.
For example, visualization,
before you'd
go out on the court,
you'd sit quietly and visualize
walking out onto the court
with your opponent
and warming up.
So when you started the match,
it was like
you'd been there before.
{\an8}In '73, I came back here
to my tennis ranch,
{\an8}and we're
just having a third child
{\an8}and travel
was getting very tough.
Told my wife
I was going to quit.
And she talked me into
having a good think about it
and playing again, so.
I said, "Well, if I play,
I have to dedicate myself 100%
and the family is
going to be sacrificed."
And she said, "All right."
I said, "Well,
I'll give it nine months."
And I said, "My aim will
be to win the US Open
and win the WCT championship
final in Dallas
in nine months' time."
I was ranked tenth and
I managed to win the US Open.
And then in May,
I went to WCT finals in Dallas,
and there was this young
guy there called Björn Borg,
who I'd never seen play before.
And I watched him play
his two matches there.
So I thought,
"This young guy is pretty good."
So, we had to play in the final.
[commentator]
Saved and Newcombe wins.
And that's going
to help things.
[Newcombe] And I managed
to win in four sets.
And they said, "By the way,
you're number one
in the world now."
I'd been on this nine
month quest, you know,
and now I was trying to put
a bit more time into my family.
And the next year I thought,
"Well, I might as well
finish off my career."
Played the US Open.
I got to the semis and lost it.
Jimmy had taken over
the number one ranking then.
{\an8}[Connors] You always remember
the beginning, the first one,
{\an8}the pressure
that's put on everybody.
[commentator]
Jim Connors at 21.
You know, to win Wimbledon
and what that does
for your career
and what that does
for your legacy.
[commentator]
Championship point.
[Connors] So to relieve
that pressure at a young age
just allowed me
to just go cut loose.
To be number one in the world,
you know,
getting there is great,
but staying there is tough.
[announcer]
Game, set and championship.
Jimmy Connors.
[Connors] So being able to raise
my game match after match,
that was hard work.
But that's what
I was taught growing up.
{\an8}[Drucker] Connors liked to say
he was kind of born
{\an8}on the other side of the tracks,
down in the boondocks.
{\an8}It was a song he liked to sing
when he was practicing.
{\an8}And he took
a certain kind of pride
{\an8}in having come from a more
working class background
{\an8}than people from
the country clubs.
[Connors]
I came from a tennis family.
My grandmother taught my mother.
My mother
and grandmother taught me.
My mom was my practice partner.
Couldn't beat her
until I was 16.
She taught me at a very young
age about being competitive.
{\an8}I think it
was Frank Deford that said
{\an8}he was raised
by women to beat men.
And they raised him
to be a champion.
And Gloria would be
feeding young Jimmy ba*ls,
and instead of aiming
at his mother, he'd aim it away.
And she said, "No, no,
you come right at my grill.
If you can go after your mother,
you can go after anybody."
It was a different upbringing.
One that I liked because
it kind of prepared me
for a lot of things
that was to come
over the course of my career.
I was a late bloomer as far
as growing and gaining strength.
I woke up one day and
my game came around
to fit that new growth
that I had
and give me more power
and more stamina.
I moved better and just things
started happening in a hurry.
{\an8}His name is Jimmy Connors.
{\an8}He's going to be the best
player in the world.
{\an8}You mind playing with doubles
at the French Open?"
When I first started,
we became very good friends
and he kind of mentored me.
You know,
kind of showed me the ropes.
Hanging with him was just fun.
You know, going out
and having dinner
was an education for me
because he's six years older
and he had been around tennis
a little bit.
So I was learning tennis
from him, practicing with him
and you know, what it took to,
you know, get up for a match.
That's all new to me
at 16 years old.
And I was kind of learning that.
Jimmy Connors fed off
his opponent's power.
He had such a great eye
and that desperate metal
racket with the tiny head,
which he was able to
hit center all the time.
And he was the most amazing
fighter and competitor.
I had to be fast.
I had to mix up my shots.
I had to make good returns
and, you know,
try to put them
on the defensive.
I always had
the feeling like playing Jimmy,
going out there in a fight
with a no holds barred.
{\an8}You're just going
to hammer one another
{\an8}and see who comes out on top.
Being number one was
why I really got into the game.
[crowd gasping]
I found something that
I loved and I could be good at.
[crowd applauding]
The harder I worked,
the better I got,
the more intense I got.
But for me to be number one,
I didn't want to get in the game
to be anything but that.
He was a great number one.
And he is one of the most
important tennis players
of our time because
he brought in the casual fan.
But we're inviting 20,000
people into your office
and I want them to come
and watch me work.
I wanted them to know
how I was feeling.
And I'm going to say
this with the utmost respect,
the rowdies, I wanted that.
I wanted the noise.
Jimmy was a bad boy.
Connors wants a call
the crowd wanna call it,
he's not gonna get it.
{\an8}He was incredibly competitive
{\an8}and didn't carry a lot of humor
along with the idea of losing.
Losing to him
was a major problem.
I hated to lose
more than I liked to win.
And even though winning
is what makes you number one,
hating to lose for me
got in my gut.
And listen,
I had my share of losses.
Nobody gets out of this game
without their share of losses.
[crowd applauding]
I didn't take them all
very well.
Then I fell out of
the number one ranking
to Björn Borg.
I think it's my happiest
moment in my life,
especially to beat Jimmy Connors
in the Wimbledon final.
That's why you do sports.
To be at the top,
to be number one,
the most beautiful thing
is winning.
{\an8}Björn Borg grew up in Sweden,
{\an8}just very middle class.
{\an8}His father, Rune,
was an electrician,
{\an8}very humble background.
His father
was a table tennis champion
who won a tennis racket
and gave it to young Björn
and Björn
fell in love with the game.
{\an8}When I was
starting to play tennis,
{\an8}my ambition was to win
Davis Cup and play at Wimbledon.
{\an8}That was my goals in my life.
At a young age,
he was a hockey player.
And that's why his backhand,
it looks
like he's playing hockey.
One of the coaches was
watching Björn and said,
"Well, we got
to change that grip."
And his other coach,
his main coach said,
"It looks funky.
That's an amazing shot.
We don't touch that."
He's got a different style
to anyone
I've ever played against.
Big, whippy topspin forehand,
a two-handed backhand.
I had not seen that type
of two-handed backhand before.
{\an8}Borg's skillset was one of
the best footworks of all time.
He was unbelievably quick,
but he was also very meticulous
when it came to his feet.
He was like a really,
really great dancer
who put his feet in
the right place the whole time.
Oh, he has won
the first set, Björn Borg.
{\an8}I really fell
in love with his demeanor,
{\an8}the way he carried himself
on the court,
{\an8}that you couldn't read him.
{\an8}He had this perfect poker face.
You never knew
by watching his face
whether he was
winning or losing.
Borg told me something
that nobody knows.
Björn was a very
temperamental player
when he was a kid.
He told me that when he was,
I think, 12 or 13,
he broke
five rackets on the court.
And then his dad came
on the court and said,
"Next time you do,
you don't play tennis anymore."
He becomes so quiet.
I saw him
once complain to the umpire
and I nearly
fell out of my chair.
He never showed a sign
of any emotion on court.
The toughest thing
for a tennis player
is mentally, psychologically.
If you play like
a team sport or something,
you can always hide
behind other players.
But tennis, you're by yourself.
When Björn Borg came, everybody
wanted to be Björn Borg.
Björn Borg, my idol,
which we all idolized in Sweden.
{\an8}The way he played,
he was the cool man,
{\an8}didn't show any emotions.
The reason I picked up a racket
and my childhood hero
was clearly Björn Borg.
The way he looked, the long
hair, the beard and headband.
He was probably
the first rock and roll star
disguised as a tennis player.
I see this young kid,
you know, with long blonde hair
and he's walking in
and I'm going, "What?"
Girls were screaming at him.
He was the first guy
I can remember
who needed so much
security around him
just to get on
center court Wimbledon.
Girls fainting seeing him.
He was a phenomenon.
I had never
seen anything like that.
He was like a god out
there with the crowd.
He was Mr. Ice Cool
but yet the fans just loved him.
[Connors] I'm kind of
thinking at the time, you know,
with all
that swirling around him,
how's he find
time to play tennis too?
[Heldman]
He was an instant heartthrob.
I mean,
the guy looked like Thor.
{\an8}He had that beautiful long
blonde hair and the blue eyes.
[Drucker] It's the Beatles.
It's Borgmania.
I call that
Borg's Hard Day's Night phase.
And Borg so becomes
this instant icon at Wimbledon.
[Carillo] It wasn't just
his magnificent face
and his, you know, beady
little eyes close together.
It looked like he was never
gonna lose sight of the ball.
He also had
a perfect tennis body.
He wasn't over-muscled,
but you could tell
that every one
of his muscle systems
was working in
coordination with the other.
[Evans] His record was
absolutely unbelievable.
I mean, apart from
the fact that he won
the French six times...
{\an8}he won five consecutive
Wimbledons on grass.
{\an8}[Drucker]
When Björn Borg was playing,
{\an8}the gap between
the slowness of the clay
{\an8}and the speedy quality
of the grass was very wide.
So, the ability to win
the French,
and then have
barely a week or two off,
and then go win Wimbledon
was an incredible feat.
Borg did that three straight
years from '78, '79, '80.
It's just amazing how he did it.
[Carillo]
He won the French Open
without dropping
a set through seven rounds.
He won Wimbledon
without dropping a set.
I mean, this is what
this guy's mind was like.
This is what
he was capable of doing.
I think people, you know,
they see the rockstar looks
and the flowing hair,
and they see his success,
and they don't realize
how sort of solitary he was
in his commitment to tennis,
sometimes to the exclusion
of everything else.
[Borg]
To sacrifice and to achieve
and to have that goal in life,
it's a difficult thing,
but it's a beautiful thing too.
[Drucker] 1980, Björn Borg
is the king of tennis,
but then 1981 becomes
the changing of the guard.
[announcer] Game to...
I hate to lose.
I really hate to lose.
To lose, that was not
part of my personality.
So, John McEnroe beats
Borg at the US Open 1981.
And the story is that he shakes
hands with the net.
"Well done, John."
Walks off the court,
doesn't take a shower,
and goes right to JFK,
flies home,
and is not really ever to
be seen again on a tennis court.
[intriguing music]
{\an8}[McEnroe] So, it was like
the greatest thing
{\an8}that had ever happened
{\an8}in a way, to me,
as a human being,
{\an8}to be like, the best player
in the world at the sport.
Suddenly it was sort of like,
it didn't feel that great.
It was like,
why are you stopping?
You know, you're 25, I'm 22.
We can be
doing this for a while.
♪
{\an8}[Carillo] We grew up
in the same crazy town.
{\an8}We played at
the same little club,
{\an8}and John was doing
things with the ball
{\an8}that I had not seen
anybody ever do before, ever.
I just said,
"You are gonna be number one
in the world one day."
I've had a couple
instances where people like Mary
have said things like
that when I was younger.
It was like, "What?"
John McEnroe is
an extraordinary human being.
Forget the fact that he was
one of the most talented players
ever to walk on a tennis court.
There's very much an artistic,
creative quality
to the way John McEnroe played.
Part of his game
was extremely aware
of the geometry of the court.
The logical shot,
the right shot,
very sharp tennis mind.
[announcer]
Game, McEnroe.
His anticipation for the game
most probably is
the best of all time.
[Drucker] Arthur Ashe said
about McEnroe, he says,
"Guys like Connors and Borg
go at you with a sledgehammer.
This guy uses a stiletto.
He kind of carves you up."
[crowd applauding]
Ah, come on.
-You're quite sure?
-[announcer] Seven all.
The ball was so far in,
I mean, do you see it in?
[Carillo] It was at Wimbledon
where he developed
this reputation
for being a bad boy.
And he didn't
even understand it.
I took my racket,
I was trying to break it.
I was pissed at a few calls.
People react, I'm like,
"What the hell
are they talking about?"
I couldn't figure out why
they were, like, getting on me,
but I did think it was funny.
Went back home to
the States and all of a sudden,
{\an8}"Are you the Superbrat guy?"
{\an8}Like, what?
{\an8}Even my friends are like, "Hey."
{\an8}I'm like,
"I'm still the same guy."
{\an8}But my life completely changed.
He had this bubbling rage
that sometimes was a volcano.
You cannot be serious!
That ball was on the line.
[Evans]
It could have been far worse,
because he did
have this amazing ability
to rant and rave at an umpire,
walk back to
the baseline and serve an ace.
[announcer] Set.
I mean, he could cut it off
as fast as he could put it on.
[stirring music]
[commentator] Amidst those
cheers stumbles McEnroe,
not the most popular of players.
The Borg-McEnroe
rivalry was the classic case
of compelling
stylistic contrast.
You got the righty Borg,
the lefty McEnroe,
the ice-like Borg,
the fiery McEnroe,
governed by a certain form of
mutual respect and appreciation.
It was down match points
and then we had
this famous tiebreaker,
which was one of
the few times in my career
where you felt like something
incredible was happening.
[crowd exclaiming]
[cheering]
There was this buzz and this
energy that was unbelievable,
and then to
save all the match points
and then eventually
win this 18-16 tiebreaker,
{\an8}I ended up
losing 8-6 in the fifth.
[commentator]
Centre court has Borg.
[indistinct].
The good news was that I got
more respect from the fans,
the media,
the players, everything,
so if there ever
could be a win from a loss,
it was that match.
There's a sense
at the end of 1980
that even though
Borg is still number one,
McEnroe is
kind of destiny's child.
It's gonna
be his time soon enough.
[upbeat electronic music]
[applause]
[announcer]
Game, set.
[Drucker] Within a year,
McEnroe took over the top spot,
Borg leaves the game,
and Jimmy Connors
soon begins a resurgence,
intensifying their rivalry.
I had been
written off for three years
and that I can't
compete with the other guys
that are above me,
and maybe my time is over.
Playing that game
was just as much fun
as the game on the court.
You know,
what it would take for me
to try to get back on top.
[McEnroe] He sort of knew
what he was gonna do,
the way he was gonna play,
and he knew what I was gonna do.
If I won the toss,
I was serving.
If he won the toss,
he was receiving.
So we'd go up
there and he'd be like,
"Why are we even doing this?"
[Connors] McEnroe, he was me.
I was him.
He's Irish, I'm Irish.
He's lefty, I'm lefty.
Everything that we were
kind of clashed.
It's like two
bulls in a china shop.
[Carillo]
They were both hotheads.
They truly
did not like each other.
[commentator] Now all of
the officials are around.
That was not an act.
Sometimes, there are acts
in tennis. It was real.
He was a serving volley player.
I was a returner.
You know,
I had to figure out something
a little bit different
to do to beat him.
Same with him beating me.
I'd play him and I'd
go back to my hotel room
and I'd look in the mirror.
I'm like, "Are you trying
as hard as this guy?"
And I felt like I tried hard.
But it felt
like inevitably that
I wasn't trying as hard as him.
And it was like,
you've got to somehow find a way
to compete even harder.
[confident music]
John McEnroe in 1984 was
playing some of the best tennis
in the history of the entire
sport,
dominating opponents
everywhere he played.
{\an8}[McEnroe] Everything clicked.
And I was like, finally.
Because you always feel like
you want to get to some level
that maybe
you didn't know you'd get to,
or maybe
you did know you'd get to,
or you should get to.
And so it became,
I don't want to say effortless.
It just came easier.
So much of tennis came
so naturally to John McEnroe.
He was given
some genetic assets that
allowed him to already
be skilled and talented.
And then,
he took them even further.
Since he was a net rusher
and a serving volley
all-court player,
doubles went part and parcel
with his training.
[intense string music]
[cheering]
John McEnroe might well
be the best doubles player
in the history of tennis.
His partner, Peter Fleming,
made the famous quip
that the best
doubles team in the world
is McEnroe and anybody.
I know that's true.
Because the first
major John ever won
was a French Open mix with me.
{\an8}Playing doubles was huge for me.
{\an8}Just a way to sort of
escape the boredom
{\an8}of just sitting around.
I like to play matches,
as opposed to practicing.
That's me. Some guys like to go
and hit a basket of ba*ls.
You know, that puts me to sleep.
[tense string music]
{\an8}That '85 final was, to me,
for the number one ranking.
{\an8}I think I could have
kept it had I beaten him.
[commentator]
We have had a significant delay.
And I remember
getting there late,
because I thought
it was going to rain.
And I thought it was
going to be delayed.
And I'm like,
"Oh my God, it's clearing."
I got there at 20 of four
for a four o'clock match.
Totally unprepared.
I came out and had to leave.
Got off the chair at five to,
And I took about six
steps towards the baseline.
And I looked back
and I saw my body on the chair.
And I'm like, "Uh-oh."
All of a sudden, every ounce
of energy I had in my body
felt like it was,
like, left there.
And I'm like, "Ugh."
{\an8}And then the first set was over.
{\an8}And it was like
a slow, painful death.
[commentator] Ivan Lendl has
won the US Open of 1985.
{\an8}You know,
I'm going to have to be like,
{\an8}accept that, you know, I've
lost the number one ranking.
♪
{\an8}I come from
a different background
{\an8}than most of these players.
We didn't have any tennis
on television,
other than Davis Cup,
or the Czech Nationals,
or semis and
finals of Wimbledon.
That was it.
[Carillo] Ivan, he remembers
the Russian rule, communism,
you know, all of that stuff.
Ivan had a mother, Olga, who was
a very good tennis player.
And she instilled
the work ethic in Ivan.
And she was very hard to please.
When you're a kid,
you're just playing to have fun.
And you're inside a club.
And you're looking at,
"Okay, one day,
I would like
to play for our club."
Being number one,
obviously, as a nine-year-old,
it never crossed my mind.
[Drucker]
Ivan Lendl, in 1978,
became the world's
number one junior.
{\an8}There's a theoretical
expectation
{\an8}that you might
do more great things,
{\an8}but it's not always the case.
I was very much aware
of how many promising juniors
never made it.
I had to get better.
[Carillo]
Ivan wanted to be free.
He wanted to be rich.
So, tennis was this promised
land for people like that.
This is what was going
to give them their lives.
♪
Youth is a powerful thing.
He was getting
nothing but better.
And he had power
from the baseline,
he had a really good backhand,
but he had a really
devastating forehand.
And he could do a lot with it.
[Carillo]
He had a muscular game,
very physical game.
He had a very big serve.
And he would overpower people,
overwhelm people.
[Drucker] Ivan Lendl won
a whole bunch of tournaments.
And he became number one
on the ATP computer rankings
in 1983.
But he still had yet to
win a Grand Slam tournament.
And that created
a certain kind of unclarity
about how well
Lendl was going to fare.
My goals were trying to do as
well in the slams as possible.
What I really wanted
to do was get better.
But how am
I going to get better?
What do I need to improve?
What are the drills?
How do I get quicker?
You have to have a plan.
It's not going to happen
just by hitting ba*ls.
You always look
at people who do well.
{\an8}I think you can look at Martina.
{\an8}I realized she got fitter,
faster and stronger.
{\an8}I hired an athletic trainer,
track and field.
I got a lot of drills.
And then I just went
and did those exercises.
[Evans]
Ivan was a complete masochist.
{\an8}He used to look at himself
in the mirror in the morning
{\an8}and say, "Ha, body,
how can I punish you today?"
Then he'd go
for a five-mile cycle,
then for a two-mile run,
then practice for four hours.
That was an Ivan Lendl day.
Taking it to that extreme
obviously can be intimidating.
That's the idea.
That's why you do it,
to try to get an edge.
And I give him credit for that.
I mean, he took it
to all new levels.
[Lendl]
I could get two more ba*ls,
be in better position
with my feet,
and last longer on the court.
I mean, if
you look at every sport,
the fittest and fastest
are usually the best two.
[Heldman] You've got Lendl
who comes on the scene.
He's got this intense manner.
{\an8}And it's all at the same time
{\an8}as Terminator,
as Rocky IV.
{\an8}And he kind of
immediately ends up
{\an8}taking on some of
that villain vibes.
{\an8}Playing him
was a nightmare for me.
{\an8}I never beat him.
I never really got close to him.
He just hit
the ball too damn hard.
He was very much
the Terminator, the machine.
When he was playing his best,
he just wiped you off the court.
[McEnroe] There were a few
people, Ivan, one of them,
that went to that extreme.
That almost seemed like,
how do you have any life at all?
And in a way,
I don't know if he did.
But that's sort of what
he felt like he needed to do.
[Becker]
Lendl was probably the first
real tennis professional.
{\an8}Talking about practice,
diet, racket stringer,
{\an8}he did everything
perfectly on and off the court.
[Carillo]
Ivan is the first guy when,
after the first
seven games of a match,
he would change rackets
because he knew the tension
had dropped down half a pound.
{\an8}His whole attitude was, all
right, maybe it hasn't changed.
Just in case, I've brought
And now almost every player
changes rackets
the same way he did.
[intense string music]
When it really mattered
to me was beating John
at the US Open finals in 1985.
That's when I became number one.
[cheering]
In my mind,
there I was true number one.
That's dominoes after that.
He loved hard courts.
He was hard himself.
Like, it made
total sense that he loved
the hard courts of New York.
The crew that was
hired for the US Open
to resurface the court,
Lendl would have them,
like, that night,
drive to his mansion
in Connecticut,
to his tennis court,
and resurface his court
the exact same way
they'd resurface the US Open.
Who the f*ck does that?
[Lendl] If your goal is to win
as many majors as possible,
you never achieve that goal.
You climb and climb.
Even if you win the next three,
you still have more motivation.
He was in eight
consecutive US Open finals,
which is just mind-blowing.
[Drucker] So it's 1988,
and Lendl is hoping
to win the US Open for
the fourth straight time.
But he ends up coming
across this red-hot Swede
who is so smart,
Mats Wilander.
I clearly wanted
to win all of them.
It wasn't to be.
[cheering]
[commentator] Mats Wilander,
taking over the number one
spot in men's tennis.
That is from
the US Open in 1988,
and I just hit
the worst serve of all time,
and he missed the return
for me to win in five sets.
[Lendl]
I lost US Open finals.
Losing number one
was consequence of it.
{\an8}Lendl had been
number one for a few years,
{\an8}so he was most
probably getting bored with it.
{\an8}So here he go, he wanted
to hand it off to somebody else.
{\an8}He was joking, I'm sure.
But I took it from him anyway.
In Sweden, everybody wanted
to be Björn Borg.
The lessons in school
would literally stop,
and they would roll in the TV.
He was Beatles to us in Sweden.
{\an8}[speaking Swedish]
So, I started to copy Borg,
which is what all Swedes did,
and that's why
we had so much success.
Because he literally
didn't make any mistakes.
That was his mindset.
Okay, so I can try
not making any mistakes.
Don't say a word.
I can do that.
I can say not a word
when I'm playing tennis.
Run really hard for every ball.
I can do that too.
[commentator]
Sensational rally.
Train really hard.
I can also do that. That's easy.
But what's really hard to copy
is somebody's skill level
when it comes
to hitting the ball.
Björn Borg is so far ahead
of anything I could have done.
{\an8}Mats had this unbelievable
brain, even at a young age.
He understood the court.
He understood how
to win tennis matches.
[Wilander]
My philosophy was always,
you don't have to
be so good at something.
You just have
to be not bad at anything.
You're complete enough
to handle any surface,
any player on any day.
{\an8}[Wilander]
In 1982, I was very young.
I just had a really
good tournament in Italy,
and I was coming
into the French Open,
ranked, I think, in the top 30.
Jimmy Connors
asked to practice with me.
I'm not sure why.
I've never seen
Jimmy Connors before.
We started practicing,
and we hit it for about
half an hour, 45 minutes,
and we started playing points.
And I was beating him.
And he called me a certain name
that I can't repeat on camera.
Mats is too
much of a gentleman to say.
He called him a m*therf*cker.
[Wilander] And after that,
I asked my coach,
"Did you hear what he said?"
He said, "Yeah, I heard it.
Don't worry about it."
I'm like, "What do you mean,
don't worry about it?"
Jimmy Connors
was my idol back then.
So then what happens
is I couldn't really play,
and Connors beat me in practice.
That was my first intro
to Connors.
And I grew up very quickly.
When you play on the men's tour,
anything goes.
That's what I learned from it.
[crowd winning]
{\an8}[announcer speaking French]
{\an8}And then two weeks later,
I managed to win the tournament.
So thank you, Jimmy,
for toughen me up.
[cheering]
[Wilander] You don't have to
have a massive, huge weapon
to be number one in the world.
And I had less weapons
than most players.
So tactics became
really important to me.
[commentator]
There's the two-hander.
[commentator 2] Right.
[commentator]
Now back to the one-hand.
It was all about
trying to make you play worse.
You've got to
exploit certain weaknesses
in my opponents in every point.
Mats, I think, was probably
the most intelligent player
to play the game.
[Edberg]
He was a fantastic player.
{\an8}Very strategic,
very hard to hit through.
{\an8}Always came up with answers.
{\an8}The way he could beat you wasn't
with a knockout punch.
{\an8}It was a jab after
jab after jab to the point
{\an8}where if he just
touched you with one punch,
{\an8}you'd fall to the deck.
In '88, I had a great year
leading up to the US Open.
Started working out
much, much harder,
and I got a lot stronger.
And I was feeling so confident
about playing tennis.
Mats had
an incredible year in 1988,
and won three out of four slams.
He was mentally so strong,
physically so strong.
[cheering]
[commentator] Game, set.
That's a championship.
[Carillo] I think it's easy
for people to forget
how great Mats Wilander was.
He won seven majors.
That's what John McEnroe won.
[cheering]
[Wilander]
After that, I took a week off.
And then suddenly
it started to sink in
that I was number one
in the world, which is cool.
But then when
you start practicing
and you start
playing matches again,
I didn't have
the exact same fire.
The new feeling, because
before I became number one,
there was never a day or a match
or a point when I didn't care.
[somber music]
There's also times when I felt,
"Why do I have to prove to you,
to everybody here,
that I am better than you again
when I just did it last year?"
While I was winning, all
the thoughts made sense to me.
After, I became a player
that thought too much,
and could never-- I could
never find the spark again.
When you're number one,
you have a target on your back.
You are the chased one.
You have to
be prepared for everything.
When I talked to other
guys who were number one,
they were,
all of them were saying
that when
they become number one,
"Oh my God,
it was like so tough."
You can have a letdown.
Where do you go from there?
But it really
starts with strength,
this inner strength of saying,
"Okay, doesn't matter
what I have to do.
I want to be
the best in the world."
And they're writing you off
and saying
your time's over already.
You know,
it's how you handle that.
You know, that became
a game in itself to me.
And the, you know,
the ability to travel,
to be away from family.
Some people hold very close
to that part of their life,
that they can't let that go.
It's a tough position,
at the same time,
it's a wonderful place to be,
the best player in the world.
And, you know,
that's one of the things
that I'm the most proud of.
[producer]
Go ahead.
I was number one in 1973.
It's very nice
to be the first one.
[upbeat music]
[Federer] I'm a big nostalgia,
tennis lover.
Knowing the history of
the game is important to me.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
That was fun.
Thank you. Thanks, guys.
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