Rahul Bose on Bollywood Bole Toh: Wimbledon the winner!

Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe shake hands after a match at Wimbledon PicGetty ImagesFor a sportsmad freak like me July has to mean Wimbledon Its been a 40year affair between the tournament and my TV set I can recount almost every mens and womens final since 1976 I am glad I missed the womens final in 1977 because it was the year that Virginia Wade won the Wimbledon and the Brits never let us forget it For years her Thatcherian voice boomed out of the telly doing commentary and sometimes you had to ask yourself if Ginny hadnt won Wimbledon would we have had to endure her every yearI saw my first Wimbledon final on our BampW Crown TV with portable antennae Bjorn Borg beat Ilie Nastase in three sets The Swede was a unique phenomenon in tennis robotic emotionless with a rumoured heartrate of 32 beats per minute Nastase on the other hand was the perennial enfant terrible of the sport outrageously talented and badly behaved Borg dismantled him The womens final was a thriller with a gorgeous American woman called Chris Evert winning 97 in the decider against Evonne Goolagong a rangy Australian exchampion who would win the title again in 1980Even in black and white I was fascinated by everything about Wimbledon The grass mowed in stripes how did they do that I wondered ball boys and girls functioning like a trained army and the great Dan Maskell on commentary who knew his name for the first 10 years of watching whose taciturn style was underplayed even for an Englishman When Dan Maskell said Oh I say it was akin to him having a multiple orgasm The joke went What would Dan Maskell say if he learned of a nuclear invasion of the UK Oh dearThe next year we watched the finals at a close family friends place followed by a brilliant meal of keema buns and chicken pizzas The tennis wasnt the best Borg beat Jimmy Connors in three sets but I was delirious My favourite had wonThen came the BorgMcEnroe era I am not being sexist Even NavratilovaEvert werent in the same class If I ever had to interest a child in tennis I would show her the BorgMcEnroe epic duels Well maybe not When I watch clips of those matches I realise how far racquet technology has moved since then how much fitter players are and how much faster and more powerful tennis has become The old matches may bore the kid But at the time it was the giddiest most competitive rivalry you would see in any sportWith Borg and McEnroe who were personality and skillset wise total polar opposites it was inevitable that you had to belong to either camp It was like people in the era before who had to either be Beatles or Rolling Stones fans You couldnt sit on the fence My heart broke when McEnroe won the 1981 final But Borg had won it five times running so that took the edge off the disappointmentIf that was the last of Borg it was to also be the last of our black and white television Asian Games in Delhi ushered in the era of colour television and we sold our Crown and bought a BPL television Colour What a rush Look how green the court was And the purple and green Wimbledon towels And the ball boys and girls in coloured uniforms FantasticI continued to be a Wimbledon fanatic through the Becker Lendl Sampras and Agassi years Maskell gave way to McEnroe on the mic my BPL to a Sony Trinitron but tennis gods had another Borg in store for me and the world A player better than Borg A player who would go down in history as the greatest of modern times if not all time And thats who I just watched beat Dimitrov for a place in this years quarter finals on HD TV By the time you read my next column Roger Federer would have won his eighth title Or not Either way Ill be glued to my televisionSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paper