Borg McEnroe: A ‘dazzling’ tale of sporting rivalry

A new film about the real-life rivalry between tennis stars Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe opens in UK cinemas today, launching a volley of tennis movies due out this year.

Borg McEnroe is set in the lead-up to the 1980 Wimbledon men’s final as then world number one, ice-cool Bjorn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason), prepares mentally and physically for a record-breaking, fifth Wimbledon championship. His only obstacle is John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf), a brash, volatile young talent determined to take him down.

The film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month, where critics praised its impressive performances.

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John DeFore in the Hollywood Reporter calls the tale of “the IceBorg versus the SuperBrat” an acting-centred sports film capable of engaging mainstream viewers “who don’t know their 30-loves from their birdies or hat tricks”.

The critic adds that LaBeouf and Gudnason “give performances as good as you could want”, bringing “unexpected shades to the well known characters”.

Peter Debruge in Variety compares Borg McEnroe to another sporting rivalry film, Rush, but says this movie is “dazzling in its own right” and LaBeouf in particular is “terrific”.

The critic notes that the big tennis finale generates the “desired tension” with music, creative camera angles and ridiculously hyperbolic commentary. But Debruge argues the real reason we’re invested is because the director and cast have “made us care about both Borg and McEnroe”.

But Borg McEnroe isn’t the only tennis move due out this autumn. It will soon to be followed by Battle of the Sexes, the true story of the 1973 tennis match between the former women’s world number one Billie Jean King and male ex-champ Bobby Riggs.

Meanwhile, another tennis documentary, Love Means Zero, about the legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, debuted in Toronto earlier this month.

Tennis films are usually terrible, says John Clarke in Vanity Fair. But the critic wonders if this latest trio of films can “shatter the sport’s on-screen losing streak”.

Clarke argues that it is difficult to capture “the beauty and elements of the game” on screen. But as with any sports film, he admits, what counts is looking beyond the sport “to the storytelling and the character” and this is, perhaps, where “this new crop will stand out”.

Xan Brooks in The Guardian agrees that tennis is a tricky sport to portray, explaining that the “knockout punches and home-runs” of boxing and baseball offer “neat movie resolutions”, while tennis is “a long-form narrative”.

Brooks argues that Battle of the Sexes is always about “so much more than just sport” but is “less convinced” this applies to other tennis-themed films.

Ultimately, Brooks says the best way to understand the subject is “simply to watch the match”. He adds: “Nothing reveals a contestant so clearly as the contest itself.”