Game, set and matchless: this could be the last time for sport's greatest rivalry

Bjorn Borg Interview: When legends collide, memories flow. Ronald Atkin in Monte Carlo talks to the Iceman about old times and his new life

It was a sporting gem witnessed by fewer than a dozen people: last Wednesday evening, under the floodlights on a damp clay court at the Monte Carlo Country Club, there they were, the two athletes who contested tennis's greatest match. That was in 1980, with the Wimbledon title at stake. Now, in the chill damp of a Monaco night there was nothing to play for except to cement further the deep friendship and respect that the 46-year-old Bjorn Borg and the 43-year-old John McEnroe have for each other.

The two men are in Monte Carlo this weekend for the latest event on the Seniors' Tour, the Tamoil Legends of Tennis. Last night they played competitively, for what could be the last time, in the tournament at the glistening new location in the land of the moneyed, the Grimaldi Forum. But on Wednesday the laying of the Forum's court was not complete and, so anxious were the pair of them to trade shots and gossip, that three hours after an overnight flight from New York and a change of plane in Paris delivered McEnroe into Monaco, they were uncorking the vintage stuff outdoors on clay. Just for the hell of it.

That McEnroe's life does not become any less hectic and demanding was evident in the shrill tones of his mobile phone which twice broke into their session. That Borg was looking forward to the reunion was clear when we spoke that lunch-time: "I can't wait to see John again," he said. "Every time we play, even in practice, it is so special." McEnroe, someone not renowned for ever being at a loss for words, described it thus: "Man, when we get on court..." before finding himself unable to complete the sentence.

Then he hit his stride again. "When I got out there with Bjorn it almost felt like I was laughing inside. This is what it is all about, the two of us out there in the wet. Bjorn just said, 'So, here we are.' It was incredible. Nothing is the same as a Wimbledon final but this was pretty darn close. You are excited, you feel like a kid. You see the guy on the other side of the net, still fast and fit, and you have to take a deep breath. He's 46 but he's got the body of a guy of 35 and moves better than 90 per cent of the people still out there on the tour."

It was a compliment to burnish what is a happy time for Borg. For 17 years this only son has had just one son himself, Robin. Now, following his third marriage last June to Patricia Oestfeldt, he is set to become a father for the second time next May. More, he is also now stepfather to Patricia's eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter. Bjorn and Patricia, a 32-year-old fellow Swede and a broker, were married at an 18th-century church near Stockholm on 8 June, two days after Borg's birthday and during the French Open, a Grand Slam he won six times.

He smilingly denies that the timing was deliberate to keep tennis people away from the ceremony. Many of them still made it: old adversaries like Ilie Nastase and Guillermo Vilas, and former team-mates like Mats Wilander. "We both wanted a summer wedding and in Sweden June is a good month to get married. It was unbelievably nice weather, a perfect day," he explained. "I met Patricia at a tennis club in Stockholm where I go to practise. She is a decent player, so we just started talking, then talking more, and finally I invited her out and that's how it happened."

After the bittersweet failure of his first marriage, to the Romanian player Mariana Simionescu, and the chaos of his second, to the Italian pop singer Loredana Berte, Borg was understandably reluctant about the prospect of a third. "If you had asked me two years ago if I would ever get married again, I would have definitely said no. But then I met Patricia and was in no doubt that I should take this step again, so I am very happy."

Freshly returned from a belated honeymoon in Bora Bora in French Polynesia, the Borgs divide their time between a home in Stockholm and the apartment in Monte Carlo that for years was Bjorn's base of operations, the place from which, in eight years before walking away from tennis, he captured 11 Grand Slams and five Wimbledons in a row. "Monaco has always been special to me for so many years," he said as we sat in the side room of a Monte Carlo bookstore after he had gone through a photo session involving small children and giant tennis rackets. "I played my first big final here in 1973, lost to Nastase. Since then I have had a lot of victories here. So it is a special moment to come back and play the Seniors."

It is a special moment in many ways. Since announcing at the Honda Challenge in London almost two years ago that he was cutting back on competitive tennis, Borg has been true to his word. A combination of unwillingness to involve himself in too much travel and a stubborn Achilles problem have not doused his love of the sport, since he still averages an hour a day on court in addition to a growing involvement coaching Swedish juniors, but this weekend's tournament is his first of the year. And possibly the last one ever, though he offers that Borg special, a smile and a non-commital shrug, when the question is posed.

"I had almost 10 years on the Seniors tour. It was so much fun and I still keep in touch with everybody. It is important for me because they are my generation and they mean a lot to me. It was such a great generation. But I just felt I didn't want to travel too much. To play Seniors tennis these days you need to play a lot and be extra fit, because we are getting older and the younger guys are coming in. The amount of tennis I am playing right now is perfect, I still get my exercise and practice. For years they have been asking me to coach Swedish kids and now I am happy to be doing that. We are having big discussions and hopefully next year I will become even more involved because right now in Sweden we have a big problem with the generation gap between 12 and 17 and something needs to be done.

"We need to take care of our sport because kids get interested in other sports now and if you don't promote your own sport well enough they will go into something else. For so many years we were spoiled in Sweden. First I came along, then Mats [Wilander] and then Stefan [Edberg] and no one had to do anything for years about getting young people interested. After the present group on the professional circuit like Thomas Enqvist and Thomas Johansson we have only one big possibility for the future. His name is Robin Soderling and he is 17 and he has the potential to be a great player. But after him we have a problem. We really need to start all over again, go to clubs all over the country to find talent, hire the right coaches."

There is one other Robin who may yet figure in Sweden's plans. Borg met Jannike Bjorling, a 17-year-old, while judging a Miss Wet T-shirt contest and their affair meant the end of his marriage to Simionescu. In September 1985 Jannike gave birth to Robin Borg, the one bright product of those bleak years which followed Bjorn's dramatic burn-out and departure from tennis. Robin is now attending a tennis academy in the south of Sweden, but it is a moot point whether the surname is a help or handicap.

"Robin wants to be involved with tennis. He enjoys it. He goes his own way and handles the whole situation very well," said Borg. "But I don't know whether he wants to take the big step and make it his career. He has 18 more months at the school and then we will see."

Though his hair, worn longer once more, is now an attractive iron grey, Borg still looks younger and fresher than he did in 1983 when, aged 26, he turned his back on the sport which had purloined his youth and made him rich. From the man whose countenance rarely unfroze in those days, there is now a ready smile, though he is steadfast in refuting opinions that he retired too early. "I could have played another five years and maybe won more Grand Slams but I was tired. It was not fun. I couldn't be 100 per cent focused, so why should I be on a tennis court? That was one of the strongest parts of my game, my mental attitude, being at my best under pressure. If I didn't have that, there was no point going on."

The turning point came, he says, when he was going for his sixth consecutive Wimbledon title. He faced McEnroe in the 1981 final and was beaten 4-6 7-6 7-6 6-4. "Here I was in another Wimbledon final, the biggest thing you can play in, yet I didn't have that sparkling feeling. And when you don't have that feeling, then there is something wrong. Of all the finals I played, that is the one I should have won, yet it didn't bother me when I lost. So I decided it was time to go.

"I don't regret doing that. Afterwards I tried different things, business things, the good things, the bad things, that's normal if you have been a successful athlete. When you try other things in life it's normal that in some you are not going to be successful. It was just a learning process in my life for me. Even if I had played five more years I would still have had to face that sort of reality. But one thing I have learnt: I never want to let tennis go again, like I did for a while there. That was not right, but you have to find out for yourself."

Borg has found out many things for himself: that a third, happy marriage can follow two failed ones, and that a successful business career can supplant earlier disasters. When his Bjorn Borg Design Group crashed in the Eighties, the subsequent battle to pay off taxes and debts was a grim time. "But I regarded it as battles to fight," he says now. Those battles won, Borg has a new clothing company, bearing simply his name and marketing sports and casual wear, as well as shoes and bags.

He is determined, stubborn even, in his refusal to become involved in aspects of tennis where he feels uncomfortable. One is the captaincy of Sweden's Davis Cup team. "They have been asking me for years, but I have always said it is not a thing for me. I prefer to work with kids. It is more challenging for me to do that and to see them succeed. Anyway, I think they have found a good captaincy solution with Mats and Joakim Nystrom running it, a very good team."

Also, unlike McEnroe and another former Wimbledon champion, Pat Cash, Borg declines to become a TV commentator. "I tried that in 1983 for NBC, I did Paris and Wimbledon, but it is not the thing for me. I am happy I tried, but it is very difficult. You have to be patient, sit there for hours, a completely different world."

A completely different world, albeit a world based on tennis, is the prospect facing him after he renewed that greatest of all rivalries, Borg v McEnroe, last night. Would they ever be seen on court together again? As ever, McEnroe found the right words. "Each time I hope it's not the last time," he said.

Biography: Bjorn Rune Borg

Born: 6 June 1956 in Sodertalje, Sweden.

Lives: Monaco.

Height: 5ft 11in.

Weight: 11st 6 lb.

Career singles titles: 47.

Career doubles titles: 1.

Career prize money: $3,655,751.

Career win-loss record: 476-96.

Davis Cup: Winner with Sweden in 1975.

Grand Slam bests: Australian Open 3rd round, 1974; French Open winner, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981; Wimbledon winner, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980; US Open finalist, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981.

Also: Since retiring from tennis, has launched a successful clothing and fashion accessories company.