"The person I really missed that day was Princess Diana"- When John McEnroe played Bjorn Borg in Buckingham Palace
John McEnroe said that he missed Princess Diana the day he played Bjorn Borg in an exhibition match at Buckingham Palace.
The two locked horns in a charity match at the Royal residence in 2000 in the presence of 750 guests that included the likes of Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson, Pat Cash, singer Art Garfunkel and former Formula 1 driver Damon Hill, among others. The event was hosted by Prince Andrew with the hope of raising $1.5 million for a children's charity.
Writing about the match in his book 'You Cannot Be Serious,' McEnroe said that he found it hard to believe that he would ever play Borg at Buckingham Palace after the All England Club snubbed him in 1981 by refusing to award him the honorary membership following his maiden singles victory.
"If somebody had told me back when the All England Club was refusing me a membership that I would one day find myself playing Bjorn Borg in Buckingham Palace, I would have said, 'Yeah, and I’ll probably wind up playing Seniors tennis and doing commentary on women’s tournaments, too'," he wrote.
The former World No. 1 also wrote about his experience of entering Buckingham Palace through the palace gates and playing Borg on a hardcourt in front of a small group of eminent guests.
"Nevertheless despite Pat Cash’s statement that the only way I would ever get into Buckingham Palace would be by climbing the fence on the middle Sunday of Wimbledon, in 2000, I rode through the palace gates and up to a hard court in the middle of the magnificent grounds where Bjorn and I proceeded to play a pleasantly relaxed charity exhibition in front of a small group of invited guests that included Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson," the American wrote.
John McEnroe also wrote that he missed Princess Diana that day as she had been very kind to him during the few occasions they met.
"The person I really missed that day was Princess Diana, who had been so kind to me on the few occasions when we had met, expressing sympathy for my difficulties with the press at the end of my marriage at a time when I knew it was a hundred times worse for her. Stuffy old England after all this time, I was getting to like it quite a lot," he stated.
John Mcenroe defeated Bjorn Borg in Buckingham Palace exhibition match
John McEnroe beat Bjorn Borg 6-3, 7-6 in their charity match at Buckingham Palace in 2000. The American and the Swede previously locked horns on 14 occasions, with their head-to-head tied at 7-7.
Borg and McEnroe faced each other in four Grand Slam finals, with the former coming on top in the 1980 Wimbledon title clash while the latter won the other three — Wimbledon finals in 1980 and 1981, as well as the 1981 US Open final.
Their clash at the 1981 New York Major, where McEnroe won 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3, was also their last tour-level meeting.