Tennis legend Bjorn Borg is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Some even argue that, if he hadn’t retired at only 25 years of age, he would have been the best ever. However, to the Swedish former world No. 1 the greatest player is one of the members of the Big 3: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
For context, some of Borg’s impressive achievements include: becoming the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slams titles, dominating the French Open (six) and Wimbledon (five, consecutive), doing so between 1971 and 1981. He is also the only man to achieve the Channel Slam three times.
He was the first man since 1886 to contest six consecutive Wimbledon finals, a record surpassed by Federer‘s seven consecutive finals (2003–09). In total, he won 77 top-level titles. Apart from that, he is often credited with being one of the first tennis players to achieve stardom in the 1970s, helping raise the popularity of the sport.
Recently, Borg served as the coach of Team Europe in the Laver Cup from 2017 to 2024. Precisely, last year, he gave a rare interview to El Español in which he declared Novak Djokovic as the greatest player in history, but with an important clarification.

Borg says Djokovic is the best tennis player in history (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
“The best in history is Djokovic due to his numbers of Grand Slams, his titles, but the two players that have meant the most to this sport, in my opinion, are Nadal and Federer,” he told the outlet.

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Borg says Nadal is his favorite tennis player
In the same interview, Borg explains that Nadal is actually his favorite player because he reminds him of himself. “The comparison is hard because many years have passed and this sport has changed a lot, but I think that I can establish a parallelism between my way of playing and his,” he said about Nadal.
“The [playing at the] back of the court, the work in every point, the concentration,” he added. Actually, there are several coincidences in both of their careers: Borg became No. 1 for the first time at 21 years old, Nadal at 22 years old. The Swedish won his first major at 18, Nadal at 19. They both have been dominant on clay.

Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal have been compared due to their style of play (Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesUK/ALLSPORT)
“Nadal is a strong person, and I can also say he is a good person. That’s not always the case. There are great players on the court that aren’t as great out of it. Nadal has created a special connection with millions of people all over the world,” he added in the same interview.

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As Nadal retired last year, and Borg stepped down as Laver Cup captain, the chances of seeing these two together again have reduced. However, it’s undeniable that their legacy will live forever.