{"id":471178,"date":"2025-09-18T22:14:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=471178"},"modified":"2025-09-19T00:17:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T00:17:34","slug":"icon-reveals-truth-behind-drug-overdose-in-explosive-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=471178","title":{"rendered":"Icon reveals truth behind drug overdose in explosive book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bj\u00f6rn Borg starts his new memoir, Heartbeats<\/em>, with a story about being rushed to a Dutch hospital in the 1990s after overdosing on \u201calcohol, drugs, pills \u2014 my preferred ways of self-medication", and the Swedish tennis<\/a> great closes it by revealing that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good,\u201d Borg, 69, said in a recent video interview with The Associated Press from his home in Stockholm, \u201cto have a good beginning and a good ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

In between, the 292-page book, which will be released in the United States by Diversion Books on September 23, contains revelations about his love life, various adventures and regrets, and the 11-time grand slam champion's detailed recollections of particular matches.<\/p>\n

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Borg quit tennis at age 25 because he stopped caring when he lost.<\/p>\n

Famously private, Borg kept a lot to himself during his days on tour \u2014 as well as since he surprisingly retired in his 20s.<\/p>\n

He brings readers back to when, having lost the 1981 Wimbledon and US Open finals to rival John McEnroe, Borg realised he was done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I could think was how miserable my life had become,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

He was 25 and, while he would briefly return to tennis, he never competed at another grand slam event.<\/p>\n

After the 1981 final at the US Open, a tournament he never won, Borg grabbed some beers and sat in the pool at a house on Long Island, where friends planned a party to celebrate a victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not upset or sad when I lost the final. And that\u2019s not me as a person. I hate to lose,\u201d he told the AP.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy head was spinning," he said, "and I knew I\u2019m going to step away from tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borg writes about his childhood and his relationships with his parents (and, later, his children).<\/p>\n

He writes about earning the nickname \u201cIce-Borg\u201d for calmness on court \u2014 often contrasted by fans to the more fiery McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. And Borg writes that did not come about \u201corganically", but rather via \u201cthe bitter experiences\u201d of a 12-year-old kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI behaved so badly on the tennis court. I was swearing, cheating, behaving the worst you can imagine,\u201d he recalled in the video interview.<\/p>\n

He said his hometown tennis club banned him for six months and, when he returned, \u201cI did not open my mouth on the tennis court, because I was scared to get suspended again".<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBoiling inside? Yes,\u201d Borg told the AP. \u201cI had to control my feelings. … You cannot do that in one week. It took years to figure out how I should behave on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borg discusses cocaine and two overdoses that landed him in the hospital.<\/p>\n

He writes about panic attacks and his drug use, which he says started in 1982.<\/p>\n

"The first time I tried cocaine," he says in the book, \u201cI got the same kind of rush I used to get from tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also writes about \u201cthe worst shame of all", which he says came when he looked up from a hospital bed in Holland to see his father. Borg also clarifies that an earlier overdose, in 1989 in Italy, was accidental, not a suicide attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cStupid decision to be involved with this kind of thing. It really destroys you,\u201d he told the AP about drugs. \u201cI was happy to get away from tennis, to get away from that life. But I had no plan what to do … I had no people behind me to guide me in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, Borg paints the picture of quite a life.<\/p>\n

There was a water-skiing shoulder injury before 1977 US Open. Death threats during the 1981 US Open. Getting paid in cash … and getting robbed at gunpoint. A woman claiming he was the father of her son. Coin-throwing by spectators in Rome that led him to never return.<\/p>\n

This is not the typical sports autobiography: There is a reference to getting a message to Yasser Arafat and, five pages later, the phrase \u201dAndy Warhol was someone easy to like\u201d appears. There are name-drops of Donald Trump, Nelson Mandela, Tina Turner and \u201cmy old friend Hugh Hefner", among many, many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will be very surprised what really happened,\u201d Borg told the AP.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me to come out (after) all these years, all I went through \u2014 I went through some difficult times \u2014 (it\u2019s) a relief for me to do this book. I feel so much better. … No secrets anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bj\u00f6rn Borg starts his new memoir, Heartbeats, with a story about being rushed to a Dutch hospital in the 1990s after overdosing on \u201calcohol, drugs, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":471180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471183,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471178\/revisions\/471183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/471180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}