Bjorn’s son won his first match in Stockholm, 45 years after his father’s last. He is Alcaraz’s age and at the beginning of his career he dreamed of number 1. But the story is very different
At one point Robert Altman, an Oscar winner for lifetime achievement as a director, came out like this: “If you have a child who is more than six feet tall, don’t cut off his head or legs. Buy him a bigger bed and hope he plays basketball.” But when his films were playing on TV, Bjorn Borg had probably changed the channel: he and his son Leo did not put the racket in his hand while he was sleeping. Indeed, it is said that when the boy announced his decision to play tennis like his father, Mrs. Borg burst into tears: “I hoped he would be a footballer and even a baseball player” she told the New York Times, “I wanted to avoid comparisons with Bjorn. And instead…”. And instead Leo sees the net as an object to be overcome with the ball, not to be inflated with a balloon. Like dad. In Stockholm he had the polaroids taken out: on the home hard court where he won his first match, exactly 45 years ago his father played (and won) his last.