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But Borg's charmed life at Wimbledon —41 consecutive match victories, five titles—finally came to an end against McEnroe. Last year the two had fought a titanic five-set match; this year the memory of that peerless encounter crackled above Centre Court. Both men played brilliantly, McEnroe carving the air with the most feared array of slice and spin serves in tennis, Borg retaliating with withering passing shots and precision volleys. Borg and McEnroe are so much in a class by themselves, so perfectly matched in skills and wills that when the match concluded, each had won an equal number of games, 22. But McEnroe won the two tie breakers, abrupt margins of victory in an otherwise timeless struggle. McEnroe capitalized on the server's advantage in these sudden-death situations, booming the ball across to handcuff Borg, then rushing to the net to volley for winners. His tallies in those crucial mini-matches were 7-1 and 7-4. For the beleaguered McEnroe, the victory was vindication. He even offered the officials at the All England Club an olive branch —in perfect British style: "I'm going to have a cup of tea with them later."
Among the women, this was supposed to be the year that youth was served at Wimbledon, as vouchsafed by the departure from competition of Billie Jean King, holder of 20 Wimbledon titles, whose action was limited to TV commentary. The new wave, led by Mandlikova, 19, Tracy Austin, 18, and Andrea Jaeger, 16, was touted to take over from the stars of the '70s. As if to underscore the point, the All England Club seeded Mandlikova No. 2 (despite a No. 5 rating on the Women's Tennis Association computer listings), Austin No. 3 (despite her having played only three tournaments in 1981 because of a sciatic nerve injury) and Jaeger No. 5 (despite her spending most of her time going to high school). Evert Lloyd was ranked first, but Martina Navratilova, 24, was dropped to No. 4 and was vocal about her bruised feelings. So was the WTA, which lodged an official protest over the seedings. Said WTA Vice President Diane Desfor: "There are definitely two sides to this and we are right."
Compared with the fireworks on the men's side, the women's competition proceeded placidly. The only brouhaha came from spectators who, after standing in line all night for tickets, were so incensed by the cancellation of a women's doubles match that they cursed, booed and threw cushions onto the court. There were two emotional matches, however. Pam Shriver, making a comeback at 18 after a shoulder injury, defeated Austin for the first time in seven years, 7-5, 6-4. Even more dramatic was the showdown between Czech Star Mandlikova and Czech Defector Navratilova. Mandlikova played inspired tennis to beat the woman she once served as ball girl, 7-5,4-6,6-1.