Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe will renew one of the greatest rivalries in the history of tennis when they square off at the inaugural Laver Cup later this week. However, this time it will not be between the lines but as captains of Team Europe and Team World respectively.

McEnroe will team with his brother Patrick as the pair are trusted with the daunting task of finding success against Borg’s World squad which features Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Tomas Berdych. Borg will have Thomas Enqvist as vice-captain.

The McEnroe brothers will put Jack Sock, Nick Kyrgios, John Isner, Sam Querrey, Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalov into battle as decisive underdogs.

As players, it was a contrast in styles as the fiery McEnroe faced off against the cool, calm, and collected Borg and the encounters were often classics. The two met on tour 14 times with each winning 7 matches. McEnroe won 3-out-of-4 of their matches in grand slam events including the epic Wimbledon final in 1980 that many still consider one of the greatest of all-time. The match featured a marathon 4th set tiebreak where McEnroe saved five match points to survive and force a fifth set, winning 18-16.  Borg won the decisive final set 8-6 to win the title.

However, later in the year, McEnroe would fend off a massive comeback by Borg in the 1980 US Open, winning the championship 7-6 6-1 6-7 5-7 6-4.

The following year, the two met once again in the final of both Wimbledon and the US Open. This time, McEnroe won both titles in four sets. At Wimbledon, he stopped the Swede’s 41-straight match win streak at the venue. The 1981 US Open final was Borg’s last major final as he surprisingly announced his retirement at the beginning of 1983 at just 26-years-of-age.

Despite the rivalry, the two legends became great friends and it was McEnroe who attempted to talk Borg out of retirement, and years later, from selling his Wimbledon trophies. The American once credited Borg for accepting him on tour as a young player and giving him the sense that he belonged.

Meanwhile, Borg once told Financial Times that he remembers the rivalry fondly, “If me and John should sit,” he said, “we remember every single point in matches we played. Every point. Sometimes we say, 'Why did you serve that? You made a passing shot there, you remember you had 40-30.”

But he also acknowledged that they have different priorities today, “But for me and John, other things are more important today. We call each other, we see each other, families see each other. We don't really talk about tennis.”

Borg and McEnroe, along with Jimmy Connors, were part of one of the great eras of tennis. It was the hodgepodge of personalities that worked, and it kept fans on the edge of their seats each time they met. The Borg-McEnroe rivalry inspired the film Borg vs. McEnroe which was released earlier in 2017.

Laver Cup begins on September 22nd from Prague, Czech Republic.