#3. Bjorn Borg
During 1974, a teenager from Stockholm who was just a week shy of his 18th birthday took the world by storm by becoming the youngest ever champion of the Italian Open. A couple of weeks later, this youngster won the French Open after coming back from a 2-set deficit to win the final.
This player was Bjorn Borg. Borg soon began to establish himself as one of the best players of his era and that too, at a very young age. By the time he was 25, he had already won 11 Grand Slams that included six French Open titles and five consecutive Wimbledon titles.
Considered to be one of the greatest players to have ever set foot on a tennis court, Borg has an overall win percentage of 82.74% which is the second highest win rate of the Open Era.
Tennis great Ilie Nastase once said of Borg, “We're playing tennis, and he's playing something else". Borg’s rising stardom helped elevate the popularity of tennis during the 1970s which is one of the reasons why it has a huge fan following these days.
However, the continuous fame he was receiving and the constant pressure of expectation eventually took its toll on him as it caused burnout which in turn, gave impetus to his premature retirement from tennis, aged only 26. Truly, a great career cut short by burnout.
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