5 Sep 2025

Tennis icon Borg reveals he's battling cancer in autobiography

9:47 am on 5 September 2025
Sweden's former tennis player Bjorn Borg sits in the Royal Box, on Centre Court, during the women's singles semi-final tennis match between US player Amanda Anisimova and Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka on the eleventh day of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE

Sweden's former tennis player Bjorn Borg sits in the Royal Box, on Centre Court, at Wimbledon, on July 10, 2025. Photo: AFP / Kirill Kudryavtsev

Tennis legend Bjorn Borg says in his forthcoming autobiography that he has cancer, according to a blurb published on Amazon's Italian site on Thursday (local time).

"Until the last challenge, the most important one, not yet over, against cancer," says the Italian blurb on the site, although the English-language entry contains no mention of the illness.

Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that Borg has prostate cancer.

Borg, who turned 69 in June, dominated Wimbledon and Roland Garros in the 1970s and early 1980s.

He won the French major six times between 1974 and 1981 and Wimbledon five straight years between 1976 and 1980. He also reached four US Open finals, but lost them all.

He led Sweden to their first Davis Cup victory in 1975.

After hardly playing in 1982, he retired suddenly aged 26 at the start of 1983.

In 1991, he made a short-lived comeback using an old wooden racket.

The Swedish publisher of the autobiography, Norstedts, has not yet responded to requests for a comment from AFP.

The book, titled Heartbeats in English, is due to be released on 18 September.

-AFP