jsackmann wrote:

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> an exhibition tour in 78 or 79 that Mac, Vilas, Gerulaitus and maybe Borg did through a few locations along the Riviera, in places like Hyeres, Toulon, Aix etc - playing in bull rings or the like.

I didn't read the entire Evans book, but I think it was '79. Here are a couple of videos from the event in Frejus:

vs Nastase: www.youtube.com/watch
vs Connors: www.youtube.com/watch

There might be more videos on youtube ... I distinctly remember seeing a couple from Hyeres, but I can't find them now.

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 Marvellous - yes, Id forgotten exactly which players but knew they were all top ones - yet to stadium (definitely a bill ring! Or a Roman ampitheatre) was empty !? Whats the point of an exhib with no crowds !? 

july 1979 it says in the comments on the clips, so it would have been very warm down there! 

thanks Jeff 

Im surprised mac wasnt top on the ELO in 1984, his best year results wise?

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/11/26/the-tennis-128-no-13-john-mcenroe/

JonH comes home wrote:

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Worthy of note re Borg and Djokovic and who might get number one

After defeating Connors in Chicago for his fifth title of 1985, McEnroe's Elo rating--per my retrospective calculations--reached 2,442. That's the third-highest mark of any Open era man, trailing only the very best form of Borg and Novak Djokovic.

Above written by Jeff. Im convinced now Djoko will be number one of all time in the men. But Im also convinced Borg will be top few.

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 Though while again I have not really looked into the  methodology, just reading what's here, isn't Borg's fairly short career going to maybe pull him down a bit or was his career at the top just about long enough to be relatively OK on the longer ELO assessment?

I'd guess that there will be more than Djokovic ahead of Borg among the men.

Womens should be Evert, Graf, Navratilova, Seles, Serena Williams and Wills Moody

jsackmann wrote:

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>Im surprised mac wasnt top on the ELO in 1984

There are a bunch of players who end up with their Elo peak the year after their best season -- Elo ratings update after every match, so they improve with a win. Mac's year-end Elo in 1984 was 2,430. He was a few points higher than that before the Sundstrom Davis Cup loss, but 2,430 is his best year-end rating.

But then ... he won 22 matches in a row! (including some big ones at the Masters in January.) so his Elo improved 22 times (some by very small increments, but still), so his peak came at the end of that 22 match win streak.

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 And then of course, he effectively burnt out. I remember the 1985 grass season and high expectations- Boris Becker won queens as a newcomer but I thought mac or connors would win Wimbledon. But Kevin Curren downed them both and indeed thrashed them , and it seemed like McEnroe just had nothing to give. He came back well for US Open but in retrospect it was the end of the road. 

For those who werent around at the time or didnt follow tennis, this opening sums it all up (from Jeff)

The tennis boom of the 1970s had many origins. Open tennis revitalized the sport, pitting amateur stars like Arthur Ashe against living legends such as Rod Laver and Richard González. Television discovered tennis in a big way, putting high-profile matches in prime time slots. Billie Jean King made the sport as popular among women as it was among men.
Also: Björn Borg was really, ridiculously good looking.
Tennis has always had its leading men. Even before the freewheeling 1960s, those men rarely had to look far to find adoring female fans. Borg took things to a new level. When his blue eyes and long blonde hair touched down at Wimbledon, it was the athletic equivalent of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. Before he was the Viking God, he was the Teen Angel.
Within a few years, the Swede transcended tennis entirely. "He was bigger than the game," said Ashe. "He was like Elvis or Liz Taylor or somebody."

Thing is, it was beyond that - Borg was the ice man in terms of personality on the court - and it contrasted heavily with his main rivals of the time, McEnroe, Connors and Gerulaitus (although Gerulaitus was a mate and 17 wins to nil was hardly a rivalry). McEnroe and Connors were of course the anti Borg - Gerulaitus was a personality, born to live in the disco, which is where Borg quietly lived a lot of his time as well, out on the lash with Vitas.

If you compare those 4 with today's so called Big 4, you realise tennis was bigger, juicier and brighter to many then than it is now. What I feel could be called the halcyon days in retrospect.

Outside the algorithm, I still think Borg was the best ever. winning 5 French and Wimbledons back to back was the biggest tennis feat of all time, more than grandslams. Yes, his career was only 8 or so years but what an 8 or so years it was!