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NEW YORK: Bjorn Borg starts his new memoir, “Heartbeats,” with a story about being rushed to a Dutch hospital in the 1990s after overdosing on “alcohol, drugs, pills — my preferred ways of self-medication,” and the Swedish tennis great closes it by revealing that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“It’s good,” Borg, 69, said in a recent video interview with The Associated Press from his home in Stockholm, “to have a good beginning and a good ending.”

In between, the 292-page book, which will be released in the US by Diversion Books on Sept. 23, contains revelations about his love life, various adventures and regrets, and the 11-time Grand Slam champion’s detailed recollections of particular matches.

Bjorn Borg quit tennis at age 25 because he stopped caring when he lost

Famously private, Borg kept a lot to himself during his days on tour — as well as since he surprisingly retired in his 20s.

He brings readers back to when, having lost the 1981 Wimbledon and US Open finals to rival John McEnroe, Borg realized he was done.

“All I could think was how miserable my life had become,” he writes.

He was 25 and, while he would briefly return to tennis, he never competed at another Grand Slam event.

After the 1981 final at the US Open, 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.

“I was not upset or sad when I lost the final. And that’s not me as a person. I hate to lose,” he told the AP.

“My head was spinning,” he said, “and I knew I’m going to step away from tennis.”

Bjorn Borg wasn’t always calm on a tennis court

Borg writes about his childhood and his relationships with his parents (and, later, his children).

He writes about earning the nickname “Ice-Borg” for calmness on court — often contrasted by fans to the more fiery McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. And Borg writes that did not come about “organically,” but rather via “the bitter experiences” of a 12-year-old kid.

“I behaved so badly on the tennis court. I was swearing, cheating, behaving the worst you can imagine,” he recalled in the video interview.

He said his hometown tennis club banned him for six months and, when he returned, “I did not open my mouth on the tennis court, because I was scared to get suspended again.”

“Boiling inside? Yes,” Borg told the AP. “I 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.”

Borg discusses cocaine and 2 overdoses that landed him in the hospital

Borg writes about panic attacks and his drug use, which he says started in 1982.

“The first time I tried cocaine,” he says in the book, “I got the same kind of rush I used to get from tennis.”

He also writes about “the worst shame of all,” 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.

“Stupid decision to be involved with this kind of thing. It really destroys you,” he told the AP about drugs. “I 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.”

Borg name-drops Trump, Arafat, Warhol, Hefner, Tina Turner in his memoir

In all, Borg paints the picture of quite a life.

There was a water-skiing shoulder injury before 1977 US Open. Death threats during the 1981 US 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.

This is not the typical sports autobiography: There is a reference to getting a message to Yasser Arafat and, five pages later, the phrase ”Andy Warhol was someone easy to like” appears. There are name-drops of Donald Trump, Nelson Mandela, Tina Turner and “my old friend Hugh Hefner,” among many, many others.

“People will be very surprised what really happened,” Borg told the AP. “For me to come out (after) all these years, all I went through — I went through some difficult times — (it’s) a relief for me to do this book. I feel so much better. ... No secrets anymore.”
 

NEW YORK: Carlos Alcaraz reasserted his superiority over Jannik Sinner with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory Sunday in the US Open final — the third Grand Slam tournament in a row where these elite, young rivals met to decide the champion — for his second trophy at Flushing Meadows and sixth overall at a major.

President Donald Trump sat in a sponsor’s suite in Arthur Ashe Stadium and received a mix of cheers and boos when he offered a wave beforehand and again when he was shown on videoboards after the first set. The match’s start was delayed by about a half-hour because thousands of fans were still outside in line, trying to get through the extra security measures in place because of the presence of a sitting president at the tournament for the first time since Bill Clinton in 2000.

Perhaps the extra wait got the No. 1-seeded Sinner, who was the defending champion. Right from the beginning under a closed roof because of rain earlier in the day, No. 2 Alcaraz was better as he sought to reverse the result from when they met at the All England Club less than two months ago.

He did just that, putting his leads over Sinner at 10-5 in their head-to-head series, 6-4 in major trophies, and 2-1 in US Open championships. Plus, this win allowed Alcaraz, a 22-year-old from Spain, to take away the No. 1 ranking from Sinner, a 24-year-old from Italy.

These two guys are so, so much better than the rest of men’s tennis at the moment. 

They have combined to collect the past eight Slam trophies in a row, and 10 of 13. Novak Djokovic, whom Alcaraz eliminated in Friday’s semifinals, took the other three in that span.

Sunday’s showdown represented the first time in tennis history that the same two men played each other in three consecutive Slam finals within a single season.

This hard-court matchup followed Alcaraz’s victory over Sinner after erasing a trio of match points on the French Open’s red clay in June, and Sinner’s victory over Alcaraz on Wimbledon’s grass in July.

Both Sinner, who had won his past 27 hard-court matches at majors, and Alcaraz offered glimpses of why they are so good, although it was rare that both were at their best simultaneously on this occasion.

Alcaraz was elite in the first, third and fourth sets, Sinner’s top efforts arrived in the second.

In sum, Alcaraz was better and for longer, ending up with twice as many winners, 42-21.

Since the start of the 2024 US Open, Sinner had won 33 of 34 matches at the majors and Sunday was his fifth straight final at those events. The loss? To Alcaraz at Roland-Garros.

Indeed, over the last two seasons, Sinner is now 1-7 against Alcaraz and 109-4 against everyone else.

Alcaraz, meanwhile, has won 37 of 38 contests since May. The loss? To Sinner at the All England Club — also Alcaraz’s lone defeat in a Slam final.

In 2025, Alcaraz now has more tournament titles (a tour-leading seven) than losses (his record is 61-6, also the best in men’s tennis).

During his defeat in Wimbledon’s final, Alcaraz was caught by a camera telling his team about Sinner in Spanish: “From the back of the court, he’s much better than me.”

So perhaps that’s why Alcaraz was aggressive Sunday with his sledgehammer of a forehand — and on-target, too. Whenever even the smallest opening presented itself, Alcaraz tried to barge on through with that shot, going big early in points, which worked, either for an outright winner or forcing mistakes from Sinner.

Sinner had dropped a total of just one service game in his three matches leading into the final, but he did deal with an abdominal muscle issue in his semifinal Friday. Sinner and his coach said it was nothing serious, which might be right, but Alcaraz broke right away Sunday and five times in all.

To counteract the forehand effectiveness, Sinner made a tactical switch, going increasingly after Alcaraz’s backhand when possible. That both limited Alcaraz’s opportunities to strike a point-ending forehand and drew additional mistakes off the other wing.

Paid off for Sinner. Briefly.

In the first set and third, Alcaraz’s ratios were 11 winners to two unforced errors. Truly remarkable. In the second, those numbers swung the other way: five winners, 11 unforced errors.

An hour and 20 minutes in, it was a set apiece, after Alcaraz ceded one for the first time all tournament, allowing Neale Fraser to retain his distinction as the most recent man to win every set he played at the event — all the way back in 1960.

As Sinner worked his way into things, he would celebrate just about every point he gathered by looking at the corner of the stands where his two coaches and others, including Olympic champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn, were seated and pumped his right fist.

Ah, but it was Alcaraz who seemed to have more of the ticket-buyers on his side.