Tennis icon Bjorn Borg has opened up on his prostate cancer diagnosis after having life-saving surgery. The five-time Wimbledon champion shared his diagnosis in his recent memoir, Heartbeats, which is out on September 18, explaining that “the cancer turned out to be extremely aggressive.”
In an emotional interview on BBC Breakfast, Borg said he regularly checked himself for prostate cancer and received some “difficult” news from the doctor in 2023. Now, the retired tennis legend is taking things “day by day”.
Borg, 69, has remained private about his life after tennis. But he said he wanted to tell his story in the final chapter of his new autobiography, released on September 18.
“I don’t speak too much, I’m a very stubborn person. In my life after tennis, happened a lot of things, good things, really bad things. But I wanted to be open-minded to tell my story,” the Swedish sensation told the BBC.
“I’ve always been checking myself for prostate cancer. 2023, check myself again, and the doctor said, ‘It doesn’t look too good, we have to make an operation’.
“Okay. ‘Is that necessary?’ I told him. ‘Yes’. It was difficult psychologically for me. It’s a spread all over, I don’t know.”
Recalling his conversations with the doctor, Borg added: “I spoke to the doctor, and he said, ‘This is really, really bad’. Okay. But it’s done. And he said, ‘You have these sleeping cancer cells in your body, it’s going to be a fight in the future’.
“And I hope I’m going to be okay, I might be okay, I might not be okay. So every six months, I go and test myself. Right now I did my last test two weeks ago. So I’m okay. I take day by day, year by year hopefully. It’s a thing I have to live with.
“So many people die every year of prostate cancer. Try to test yourself if you can.”
In Heartbeats, Borg writes that there is always a “risk” the cancer might spread, and that he anxiously awaits his tests every six months, to see “if we caught it in time”.
The 11-time Major winner is now focused on spending time with his family. Borg previously had a role as the captain of Team Europe at the Laver Cup, a Ryder Cup-style team tournament co-created by Roger Federer.
He came on board at the inaugural Laver Cup in 2017 and enjoyed his final year as Team Europe captain in 2024, when they clinched the trophy in Berlin. Yannick Noah has now taken on the position.
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