The 1980 Wimbledon Men's Singles final was the championship tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 match of the Men's Singles tournament at the 1980 Wimbledon Championships

1980 Wimbledon Championships

The 1980 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on :grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon in London in England...

. In the final, Björn Borg

Björn Borg

Björn Rune Borg is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Sweden. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles and six French Open singles titles...

 defeated John McEnroe

John McEnroe

John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...

 1–6, 7–5, 6–3, 6–7^(16–18), 8–6 to win the match. It is lauded as one of the greatest matches of all time, alongside the 2008 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final between Roger Federer

Roger Federer

Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...

 and Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. , he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals...

.

Match

At the start of the final, McEnroe was booed by the crowd as he entered Centre Court

Centre Court

Centre Court is the main court at the Wimbledon Championship, the 3rd annual Grand Slam event of the tennis calendar. It is situated adjacent to Aorangi Terrace and is home to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Its only regular use is for the two weeks a year that the Championships take...

, because of the heated exchanges he'd had with officials during his semi-final victory over Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors

James Scott "Jimmy" Connors is an American former world no. 1 tennis player....

. In the final's fourth-set tiebreaker that lasted 20 minutes, often simply called "that tie-breaker", McEnroe saved five match points and eventually won 18–16. McEnroe, however, could not break Borg's serve in the fifth set, which the Swede won 8–6. This match was called the best Wimbledon final by ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

's countdown show "Who's Number One?" and "one of the three or four greatest sporting events in history" by ESPN personality Mike Greenberg.

In 1999, it ranked #10 on ESPN's SportsCentury's Ten Greatest Games of the 20th Century.

Fourth set tie break

The match is particularly noted for the tie break in the fourth set, which McEnroe won 18–16. It has been called "the most riveting episode in the sport's history".