PUNE: Dedication. If one has to characterise Leo Borg in one word, that would be it.
It is one thing handling the pressure that comes with answering to a famous surname, quite another to embrace it and give your best day in and day out — to justify the adulation, to sort of earn the tag, maybe.
“It’s a special thing to me to have a dad like him,” Borg said of his father, tennis legend Bjorn Borg, during a video call from his home town Stockholm on Thursday.
Sweden host India in a World Group I tie on Saturday and Sunday.
“He has done a lot of things in his time, and I feel really blessed because he has all the knowledge I need to get (from a father and a coach).
“Of course, he’s been really supportive, and he has always been there for me on the tennis (court) and outside tennis. He’s been the best dad, actually. So I’m pretty, really proud of him, and he has a really special place in my heart.”
On the tennis front, there’s no comparison between the father and the son.
Borg senior, 68 now, lifted Sweden to its maiden Davis Cup win in 1975 when he was just 19. If his 33 singles win streak is a record in the tournament history, his six French Open trophies — four of them in a row — and five straight Wimbledon titles put him in a different plane altogether.
Anyone else, in any walk of life, would have walked away from that borrowed stardom and harsh scrutiny that comes with it. Borg the junior has decided to not only play the sport, but also excel in it.
Currently ranked 603, Leo had risen to 334 in the ATP charts last year before suffering a loss of form. He has recovered some of his level and motivation with a title and runner-up finish in the dreary ITF circuit in Thailand in recent weeks, jumping 169 places in the ranking ladder.
Leo, 21, put it down to a “simple” advice he received from his father long ago.
“Since I was really young, he said, ‘it’s really simple, never stop fighting until the last point’. And that’s been a very good advice, just to fight the whole match and the life outside tennis also. That’s a really simple thing, but it’s been really big.”
The youngster’s humble journey on the tennis court may also explain the current woes of the sport in Sweden. For, Sweden is not just the land of Borg, it is also home to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
While Leo, who dabbled in football till the age of 12, had no doubts about his commitment to the racquet sport, his compatriots have quickly gravitated to soccer and other more rewarding sports. Not in them the mettle to fight back from losing the fourth set 16-18 in a tiebreaker after having five match points, and go on to win the fifth set in a Grand Slam final.
“In my dad’s time, they had a really good amount of tennis players. I think they had some time like five top-10 players. Now, it’s completely different. We don’t have so many players in Sweden, it’s a little bit sad because we are a really good tennis country,” Leo said.
“Many Swedish players quit tennis around the age of 18-19 because they think it’s too hard to get through to the pros. Of course, it’s hard, you really have to fight through to get to the top. I think our mentality has to be better.”