Tennis Legends Come to Murr Center

They’ve played in Wimbledon, Flushing Meadows, Roland Garros, and in Melboune, and today, they played at Harvard University. 

With a combined 18 Grand Slam titles, tennis legends Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe appeared at the Staples Champion Cup Pro-Am yesterday at the Murr Center.

The Pro-Am is hosted annually to raise money for Tenacity, a program that aids at-risk Boston youth by teaching life skills through involvement with tennis. According to tournament organizer and four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier, the tournament and accompanying dinner will raise “in the $100,000 range” for Tenacity. Courier founded the tournament in 2005.

Borg, McEnroe, and six other pros teamed up with about 36 amateurs to play doubles in a buzzing spectator event. The pros include Courier, seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Mats Wilander, 2003 Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis, 1986 French Open runner-up Mikael Pernfors, 1983 Italian Open winner Jimmy Arias, and 1992 Olympic silver medalist Wayne Ferreira. Members of the Harvard’s men’s team joined in the contest as well.
 In fact, Borg played with Harvard junior No. 1 Alexei Chijoff-Evans on Thursday for about 45 minutes.

“We had a good practice, and he has a lot of potential to be really good,” Borg said. “It’s really up to him how much effort and time he wants to put into tennis, but he has definite potential to be a good player.”

McEnroe also faced Harvard athletes, at one point succumbing to hard-serving freshman Christo Schultz, who aced the tennis hero.

“I like them to challenge me,” McEnroe said. “Hopefully I can show them a little something.”

For all those dreaming of one day wearing a Harvard tennis uniform, or even playing on the pro circuit, Borg offered some words of advice:

“You have to put a lot of effort into tennis and it takes a lot of time,” Borg said. “But the most important thing is it has to come from your heart. You have to enjoy what you’re doing.”