NEW YORK (AP) — Tennis great Björn Borg reveals in the last chapter of his upcoming memoir, “Heartbeats,” that he was diagnosed with an “extremely aggressive” prostate cancer, and he told The Associated Press that it is in remission after an operation in 2024.
“I have nothing right now. But every six months I have to go and check myself. The whole process, it’s not a fun thing,” Borg, 69, said in a recent video interview with the AP from his home in Stockholm. “But I’m OK. I’m fine. And I’m feeling very good.”
Borg won 11 Grand Slam singles titles — six at the French Open from 1974 to 1981, and five in a row at Wimbledon from 1976-80 — before walking away from tennis at age 26, although he made a brief return later. The stunningly early retirement is one of several subjects, including his drug use and his relationships with women and his parents and children, discussed in depth in the book, which is due to be released in Britain on Sept. 18 and in the U.S. on Sept. 23.
The famously private Borg said he wrote it with his wife, Patricia, over about 2 1/2 years.
“I went through some difficult times, but (it’s) a relief for me to do this book,” Borg said. “I feel so much better.”
He said he had been testing himself for prostate cancer “for many, many years,” because, he added, “The thing is that you don’t feel anything — you feel good, and then it’s just happened.”
There was a result his doctors found troubling in September 2023, so they wanted to do follow-ups, he said.
But that was right before Borg was due to fly to Canada to serve as the captain of Team Europe in the Laver Cup, and the doctors said he shouldn’t go.
“Of course I went to Vancouver. I didn’t listen,” he said.
After the event, he returned to Sweden, and went to the hospital at 7 a.m. the next day for further tests that confirmed the cancer diagnosis. Surgery was scheduled for February 2024, a wait time Borg described to the AP as “psychologically ... very difficult, because who knows what’s going to happen?”
Borg said that his most recent tests came back clean in August.
In the book, he writes: “Now I have a new opponent in cancer — one I can’t control. But I’m going to beat it. I’m not giving up. I fight like every day is a Wimbledon final. And those usually go pretty well, don’t they?”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press
