Bjorn Borg burst upon the tennis scene at age 15, a golden-haired “Wonder Child” with a suspect fighting heart, and retired at the age of 26 with a great sigh of relief, as if he had just been freed from some dreadful dungeon.

In those intervening years, from 1971 through 1982, this somber, steely Swede with his devastating topspin shots and thundering serve, provided audiences with the most gripping drama ever unfolded within those white rectangles that make up the arena of the sport.

His principal stage was the ancient turf of historic Wimbledon, although he kept so-called “teeny-boppers” squealing with delight from Paris’ Roland Garros to Melbourne’s Kooyong and New York’s Madison Square Garden throughout his self-shortened career.

Wimbledon is the oldest and most prestigious of the world’s tennis tournaments, and it is on Wimbledon’s archaic but storied Center Court turf that tennis heroes are forged, and none stood taller than the Scandinavian golden child.

Starting in 1976, at the age of 20, he stormed to five consecutive singles championships, an unbelievable feat that escaped such greats as Big Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Don Budge, Jack Kramer and Rod Laver. It was Bjorn’s one great badge of grandeur, although he also won an unprecedented six French Opens, the Italian twice, the Masters in New York and World Championship of Tennis in Dallas. Strangely, his Achilles’ heel was the U.S. Open, which repeatedly escaped his grasp.

Borg never won the U.S. Open, although he was runner-up four times, twice to Jimmy Connors and twice to John McEnroe, his chief rivals for world supremacy. A moody, private person, the young Swede never seemed comfortable in the teeming, fast-paced atmosphere he found in America, and thus his performances suffered as a result. Five times he qualified for the WCT Finals in Dallas, winning only in 1976.

His battles with Connors and McEnroe, both left-handers, became classics-duels matching markedly contrasting personalities and game styles. Connors was a feisty, alley fighter, a constant attacker who played every point as if it might be his last. McEnroe was a sulking, spoiled racket genius with tremendous natural talent and instincts.

Connors and McEnroe were given to court tantrums, constant bickering with umpires and linesmen and frequent antagonism toward fans and the press.

Both became natural villains in the scenarios that featured Borg as the good guy. A handsome athlete, close to six feet tall and slender at 160 pounds, Borg was a sphinx on the court. His strong, Viking features never showed any emotion. He never argued a point. He typified controlled strength as he literally pounded his adversaries into submission from the backcourt with his rocket-like, two-fisted backhand and accentuated topspin forehand. Although a foreigner facing Americans, he was the idol of American fans.

Borg was born June 6, 1956, in the small community of Sodertlage, just outside Stockholm. He took up tennis at an early age, playing on slow clay courts, and while still in elementary school caught the eye of Lennart Bergelin, a former member of the Swedish Davis Cup team. In a land of snow and ice, where skiing and hockey vie with soccer for the attention of youths, tennis was largely an orphan sport.

Bjorn was a court prodigy. Even before he got into his teens, he could beat top men in his community. At 14, he was an internationalist, travelling to Miami to win the first of his two junior titles in the Orange Bowl. At 15, he captured the junior crown at Wimbledon and made the Swedish Davis Cup team, the youngest ever to compete for the famous trophy.

In 1974, a scrawny kid of 17, he won the Italian National and captured the first of his six French crowns, beating Manuel Orantes after dropping the first two sets. A year later, he led Sweden to its first Davis Cup victory.

By this time Borg was the toast of the tennis world, although the huge Swedish press corps that followed him around the globe was creating negative vibes because of his continued frustrations in the United States, particularly in the Open and WCT Finals in Dallas.

The knock: "No heart. Can't win the big one."

They began asking: "Is Sweden's Golden Boy just a mechanical robot? Is what we took for tremendous calm merely a lack of fire and spirit?"

The doubts were soon shattered on the taut tension strings of Borg's familiar wooden racket.

Bjorn, twice beaten in the quarterfinals as a teenager, won his first Wimbledon in 1976 after just turning 20. He crushed flashy Ilie Nastase in the final, 6-4, 6-2, 9-7, causing the Romanian to wonder if the kid was human.

"He's a robot from outer space", said Ilie, not questioning his rival's courage. "A Martian".

In 1978, the young Swede became the first man since Rod Laver in 1962 to win the Italian, French and Wimbledon titles in the same year. He didn't lose a match over a seven month period, finally bowing to Connors in the U.S. Open.

Borg saved his greatest Wimbledon effort for his last in 1980 a knock-down, dragout slugfest against McEnroe in the final. After dropping a heartbreaking tiebreaker 18-16 in the fourth set, he allowed McEnroe only three points against his service in the decisive set, winning it 8-6. That was the year also that Borg was married to his longtime fiance, Mariana Simionescu, whom he divorced 2 1/2 years later, and began contemplating retirement. A wealthy man who had earned $8 million a year in prize money and endorsements with vast business interests, Borg retired to the life of a jet-setter on the French Riviera. He's still active, playing Conners, McEnroe and other old rivals these days on the ATP's senior circuit.