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If Wimbledon officials were miffed by such ungentlemanly delving into their financial arrangements, they were outraged by the even more ungentlemanly conduct of McEnroe. The volatile lefthander from Douglaston, N.Y., brought down the wrath of fans and officialdom almost as soon as he stepped on court for his opening day match. A few unconsidered (and unprintable) words later, McEnroe was penalized two points and $1,500 for berating the umpire and breaking his racquet. The early rounds produced a stunning series of upsets—seven seeded stars fell in the first round alone—and also brought the sad spectacle of McEnroe disputing calls (and piling up more fines) in matches he had no chance of losing. In his semifinal match against Australia's Rod Frawley, he picked up another penalty point, screaming, "I always get robbed because of the umpires in this place." That proved too much for Lady Diana Spencer, who left the royal box halfway through the long and argument-marred match. The display cost him an additional $10,000 fine.
Though McEnroe's behavior was indefensible, his complaint was not. Tennis officiating is a fine art, requiring split-second judgments on tennis balls traveling 150 m.p.h., but at Wimbledon it is done by amateurs who only last year were required to have their eyesight checked. Players whose paychecks ride on such hairbreadth decisions find it difficult to maintain a stiff upper lip when bad calls rob them of crucial points. Tim Mayotte, 20, a surprise quarter-finalist, explains, "Yes, McEnroe is ridiculous. But umpires are making mistakes too. Ask a question, and the umpire will just turn away and say, 'Play on.' You can understand the frustration."
As usual, Borg confined his pyrotechnics to shotmaking, not shouting. He needed all his guile and gifts to reach the finals in a five-set match against Jimmy Connors. Turning back the clock to his glory days, Connors, 28, played with a fury that shook Centre Court. He pounded Borg with supersonic ground strokes, winning the first set 6-0 and the second 6-4. Borg rallied to take the next two sets. Then, in the deciding set, both men lifted their games to the sublime. In the third game, Borg had four chances to break Connors' serve; each time Connors fought him off. The next game, Connors had two break points on Borg, and the Swede served two aces to win. Down 0-40 in the next game, Connors ripped off five straight points to win again. Borg finally prevailed, 6-4, and afterward declared the match "one of my greatest comebacks."