‘I’m taking life day by day, year by year’: Tennis legend Bjorn Borg on cancer diagnosis

Tennis legend Bjorn Borg says he takes life “day by day, year by year” after being diagnosed with “extremely aggressive” prostate cancer.

The 69-year-old announced the news in the final chapter of his autobiography, stating the disease was “at its most advanced stage” but he would “fight every day like it’s a Wimbledon final”.

Former world number one Bjorg won 11 Grand Slam titles, including five successive Wimbledons, before unexpectedly retiring aged 25.

The Swede is in remission, having had an operation in 2024, but described the diagnosis as “difficult psychologically”.

“I spoke to the doctor and he said this is really, really bad,” Borg told BBC Breakfast.

“He said you have these sleeping cancer cells [and] it’s going to be a fight in the future.

“Every six months I go and test myself. I did my last test two weeks ago. It’s a thing I have to live with.”

Borg first picked up a racquet after his father won one in a table tennis competition.

The racquet was too heavy for the young Borg, leading him to develop his unique double-handed backhand.

Borg won six French Open titles between 1974 and 1981 and claimed his five Wimbledon titles from 1976 to 1980.

His SW19 final in 1980 against American rival John McEnroe – when McEnroe saved seven championship points in a near four-hour epic – is seen as one of the best tennis matches of all time.

“That final was the most satisfying match I ever played. It had everything,” Borg said.

Their rivalry was nicknamed Fire and Ice, with McEnroe prone to fiery on-court outbursts and cool Borg barely showing a flicker of emotion during a match.

McEnroe would eventually end Borg’s Wimbledon dominance in the 1981 final and beat him in the US Open showpiece two months later. Borg retired shortly after the New York defeat.

“We respected each other a lot, all three of us,” Borg said of his rivalries with McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.

“We were fighting to be the best in the world. To do that, you cannot be best friends.”

But now, he said: “We are very good friends, me and John. We see each other, we go out for dinner, we talk about today’s tennis.

“We never talk about the old matches.”

Borg won 66 singles titles, spent 109 weeks as world number one and claimed a record 41 successive wins at Wimbledon.

His retirement at 25 – a time when tennis players are starting to peak – was a shock.

“I had enough. I lost the interest and the motivation,” he said.

“If I knew what was going to happen in the years after, I would continue to play tennis.”

In his autobiography, Heartbeats: A Memoir, co-written with his wife Patricia, the notoriously private Borg speaks about his post-playing career struggles.

“I had no plan. People today, they have guidance. I was lost in the world,” he said.

“There was more drugs, there was pills, alcohol, to escape myself from reality.

“I didn’t have to think about it. Of course it’s not good, it destroys you as a person.”

Borg was hospitalised after an overdose in Milan in 1989 – an incident which made him reassess retirement.

He returned to the tennis tour from 1991 to 1993 but failed to win a single match.

“I was close to dying many times,” Borg added.

“I fixed my life. I’m very happy with myself.”