Björn Borg

Björn Borg’s first marriage was to Romanian tennis pro, Mariana Simionescu ,in 1980. The marriage ended in divorce in 1984.

He married for the second time in 1989, tying the knot with the Italian singer, Loredana Bertéfrom. This marriage too did not last long and ended in 1993.

In 2002, he married Patricia Östfeld.

Björn Rune Borg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on 6 June 1956, to Rune and Margaretha Borg, as their only child.

His fascination with tennis began when he was a little boy and he started playing the sport when he was nine. He possessed a natural talent for the game which got noticed by tennis coach Percy Rosberg who began mentoring him.

He won his first tournament at the age of 11, and within a couple of years he was easily defeating Sweden’s top junior players. He won both the 13- and 14-year-old divisions of the Swedish National Junior Championships when he was 13.

Realizing that he was meant to pursue tennis professionally, he quit school as a teenager and focused on his sporting career.

Borg qualified for the Swedish Davis Cup team at the young age of 15. From there on, his career was on the upswing. The teenage sensation won the 1972 Wimbledon junior championship, beating Britain's Buster Mottram.

He turned professional in 1973 and managed to reach the fourth round of his first French Open. He won his first top-level singles title at the Italian Open in 1974, shortly before his 18th birthday. The same year, he won the French Open, defeating Manuel Orantes in the final in five sets, becoming the youngest-ever male French Open champion up to that point.

His stature as a professional continued to rise and by 1975 he had won 16 consecutive cup singles, passing Bill Tilden’s record of 12. He also retained the French Open title in 1975, beating Guillermo Vilas in the final and helped Sweden win its first Davis Cup the same year.

He reached newer heights in 1976, winning the Wimbledon without losing a set, defeating the favorite Ilie Năstase in the final. At 20 years and 1 month, Borg became the youngest male Wimbledon champion of the modern era up to that time.

His career peaked in the years 1978 through 1980. In 1978, Borg won the French Open with a win over Vilas in the final, without dropping a single set during the tournament.

Björn Borg was ranked World No. 1 by the ATP in six different stretches between 1977 and 1981, totaling 109 weeks.

He won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award in 1979.

The BBC gave Borg a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Overall he won 11 Grand Slam Single titles. These include 6 French Open titles (1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981) and 5 Wimbledon titles (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980).