Getty Bjorn Borg.
Björn Borg, the 1980s-era Swedish tennis great known as the “ice borg” for his seemingly unruffled demeanor on the court, is back in a lot of people’s minds due to the movie Borg vs. McEnroe.
The film, which stars Shia LeBeouf as John McEnroe, is more of a character study than a movie about tennis, in a lot of ways, as it chronicles the 1980 rivalry (and eventual friendship) between the then-four-time Wimbledon Swedish champion, Borg, and the rebellious, uncouth American known as “super brat.” The contest between Borg and John McEnroe is regarded as one of the best tennis matches in history.
Great to have @Wimbledon legend Bjorn Borg and his son Leo at the Nike Junior International this week t.co/FRib70XHbm
Borg, as fans of his career and the movie know, suddenly retired from tennis a year later, while only age 26 and still in his prime. That has a lot of people wondering where Bjorn Borg is today. What is the Swedish tennis star doing now?
Borg, today, has his own fashion line; he sells underwear. It’s high-end underwear, but underwear all the same. He’s made a fortune doing it. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Borg is worth $28.5 million today. “He occasionally plays professional matches now, but is more focused on his successful fashion line, Bjorn Borg,” the site reports. Borg, who was born on June 6, 1956, is in his early 60s.
Borg periodically ventures back into the tennis world; he was captain of Team Europe for the Laver Cup in 2017 (McEnroe was captain for the rest of the world’s players during that competition.)
Bjorn Borg, Captain of Team Europe looks on during practice ahead of the Laver Cup on September 21, 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic. The Laver Cup consists of six European players competing against their counterparts from the rest of the World. Europe will be captained by Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe will captain the Rest of the World team.
Borg is married to his third wife, Patricia Östfeld (yes, he did marry the girlfriend depicted in the movie, but they later divorced). Borg and Patricia have a son, Leo Borg, whom you might recognize from the movie; Leo plays a young and more tempestuous Björn, captured in a poignant scene in which he hits a tennis ball against a garage wall over and over again.
Former professional tennis player Bjorn Borg (L) and wife Patricia Ostfeldt attend the ATP Heritage Celebration at The Waldorf=Astoria on August 23, 2013 in New York City.
“We didn’t say what the movie was. And then we got a letter from Björn Borg’s own son, which his mother helped him craft, saying he would really like to audition for the film and that his name was Leo Borg,” director Janus Metz told USA Today. “And in parenthesis at the end he said he was Björn Borg’s son.”
Leo Borg, in 2018, was 14-years-old and hoping to forge a professional tennis career of his own. According to The Sun, “Leo is ranked Sweden’s No 1 in his age group and No 20 in Europe.” Whether Leo Borg will ever come even close to matching his father’s greatness is an open question, although Björn Borg was certainly one of a kind on the court. The Sun noted that Leo Borg does not have his father’s legendary icy calm demeanor.
(L-R) John McEnroe of United States, Andrzej Kepinski, Bjorn Borg of Sweden and Rod Laver speaks inside the arena ahead of the Laver Cup on September 20, 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic.
Sverrir Gudnason plays Björn Borg in the film and is an absolutely uncanny lookalike.
Borg lost at Wimbledon the following year after the historic match, to McEnroe, and he quit tennis when he lost again to the American at the U.S. Open two months later. He wouldn’t return to Wimbledon again until 2000 for a parade.
In 2016, CNN reported that Borg had settled into a quiet family life back in his home country of Sweden, reporting, “Borg enjoys a quiet lifestyle on the outskirts of Stockholm with his third wife Patricia Ostfeldt, visiting the office of his clothing brand three times a week and even doing the school run with his 13-year-old son Leo.”
“I’m a tennis dad now,” he said.
Borg’s romantic history was pretty tangled after he quit tennis. He did marry Mariana Simionescu, the fellow tennis player featured as his girlfriend in the movie, but they broke up. Today, she lives in Monaco and is unattached; she did say she enjoyed the movie and was quoted as saying, ” “I don’t know if I was the real love of Bjorn’s life, but he was for me.” They divorced in 1984.
Borg also “fathered a child with Jannike Bjorling, a teenager he met while judging a wet T-shirt competition, but then married Loredana Berte, an Italian glamour model,” according to UK Daily Mail. That marriage also ruptured but he seems to have found stability and happiness with his third and current wife, a real-estate broker. His son with Bjorling is named Robin Borg.
Swedish tennis player Bjorn Borg with his wife, the Romanian tennis player Mariana Simionescu, 1983.
There was trauma along the way. “In 1989, Borg was taken to a Milan hospital where he had to have his stomach pumped. But Borg has always maintained it was not a suicide attempt,” Telegraph reported.
“I sometimes look back to those days with all the girls, but I have a great family life now and I prefer that, staying at home with the family,” he told UK Telegraph in 2007. “This is my third marriage. Patricia and I have been together now for seven years and I’m so happy. It feels as though I have found the right woman for me and I’m now living the way I want to live. I have the perfect life now and I wouldn’t change a thing.”