My dad’s one of the greatest players of all time and won Wimbledon 5 times but he’s not my idol as I turn pro in tennis
BJORN BORG is one of the all-time tennis greats and won Wimbledon five times.
He also secured six French Open titles, was crowned world No1 and lifted the Davis Cup for his country.
Now the Hall of Famer is watching his talented lookalike son make his own career in tennis.
Leo Borg, 20, lives in his hometown Stockholm and progressed through the youth tennis ranks to compete at the junior Grand Slams in 2021.
Borg Jr kicked on to make inroads on the ATP Challenger and ITF Tours, reaching a final in Cairo in September 2022.
And he leapt a whopping 1,500 places in the world rankings during the 2022 season.
But it was not until June this year that Leo – complete with the same flowing blonde hair – earned his first-ever ATP Tour victory.
Wildcard Borg beat fellow Swede Elias Ymer 7-6 6-3 in the first round of the Bastad Open on the west coast of Sweden.
And now he has got his first call-up to represent his country, alongside Ymer, in the Davis Cup.
Incredibly, though, Leo does not cite legendary dad Bjorn as his idol.
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Borg revealed: “I met Rafael Nadal at the Laver Cup because my father is the captain of the European team.
“He was always my idol since I was little.”
Borg has won three lower-tier titles – one in Egypt and two in Indonesia – contributing to his £63,000 in career earnings.
But he knows he still has a long way to go to achieve his goals – and is well aware he will never shake off the comparisons to his father, who enjoyed a gripping rivalry with John McEnroe.
And the younger Borg, from his dad’s third marriage with Patricia Ostfeld, added that the tennis icon has never pressurised him to pursue a career on the court.
World No334 Leo said: “I want to be a professional and make a living from tennis… I would like to reach the top ten.
“The truth is that I have always wanted to play tennis on my own initiative.
“I know that he is proud of me, of what I am doing, and I hope I have a good future.”
He added: “I was having a hard time with it when I was younger, with people following me on the court or outside the courts, and I was not used to that.
“But I’m getting used to it and I can control it more.
“I just have to control it because it’s going to be following me all my career. It doesn’t bother me. I’m just focusing on my goal, on my tennis.”
