Roscoe Tanner: ‘At 15-40 I hit it three inches wide … Borg didn’t beat me by much’ | Simon Cambers

Four decades on his Wimbledon disappointment is still there but the American, who has been no stranger to controversy, has found fulfilment working with underprivileged children

Moments before the biggest match of his life was due to begin, Roscoe Tanner locked himself in the bathroom of the changing room at the All England Club. Playing Björn Borg at Wimbledon could do that to a man. This was 1979 and the ice-cold Borg was a big favourite to win the title for a fourth consecutive year while Tanner, a blond left-hander with a hammer for a serve, was in the final for the first time.

Tanner wasn’t afraid, though – not even of Borg, who had made Wimbledon a fortress. This wasn’t fear. The champion on grass at the Australian Open a couple of years earlier, Tanner had a game made for grass, his lefty serve – once recorded at 153mph – a vicious weapon. And yet, as officials waited for him to come out at the scheduled time, he just sat, stalling.

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