How David Yarrow’s Photography Reframed Tennis’ Greatest Rivalry
David Yarrow's infamous sports photography
Some sporting rivalries come about from proximity, and others are built on inevitability. The contrast between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg was both. They competed for the same titles, in the same era, and ultimately under the same mantle: The Dominance of men’s tennis at the turn of the 80s.
By 1979, Borj was already a four-time Wimbledon champion and the dominant force on both grass and clay. McEnroe, was younger and brash but rising fast, with his 1979 win of the US Open; this challenged Borg’s supremacy at one of Tennis’ most prestigious tournaments. Their rivalry wasn’t invented by the media, but it certainly was magnified by it.
![[Photo from EssentialTennis.com]](https://artangels.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Y-RIVALS1-articleLarge.jpg "Y-RIVALS1-articleLarge")
Borg’s stoicism soon landed him the nickname “Ice Borg”, directly contrasting McEnroe’s volatility and frequent on-court confrontations. In a sport with a history of restraint and decorum, McEnroe’s outbursts felt radical, whilst Borg’s composure appeared superhuman.
They didn’t just play matches, but their entire character embodies opposition philosophies.
Their 1980 final at The Championships, Wimbledon became the rivalry’s defining chapter. McEnroe saved match points in a now-legendary fourth-set tiebreak, winning it 18–16. Borg ultimately prevailed in five sets, claiming his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. The following year, McEnroe would defeat Borg on the same court, bringing an end to that streak. Their head-to-head record finished evenly at 7–7. Borg retired at just 26, leaving the heated rivalry suspended rather than resolved, an alluring open-endedness to the tension.
This was not just a battle for trophies. It was a contest over identity, temperament, and the future direction of men’s tennis.
Among his most notable motifs is the Spaceman figure, a form that has become essentially synonymous with Murphy’s work. Frequently rendered in polished chrome, this emblem represents human curiosity, exploration, and our collective desire to confront the unknown. In a contemporary context, the spacemen reads less as a symbol of conquest and more as one of contemplation, a solitary figure navigating the vase unknown.
Decades later, British photographer David Yarrow revisited the infamous rivalry, not as a documentarian, but as a myth-maker.
Yarrow’s works are frequently large-scale, cinematic black-and-white photography, often staging complex scenes that elevate subjects to something closer to legend than reportage. His sports-themed works are not action shots on the courtside; but deliberate construction of a storyline.
Yarrow united the two players long after their time on the court, positioning them within carefully composed, theatrical framing. The work is less about a specific match and more about the enduring tension the pair represents.
Yarrow’s significance lies in that shift of perspective.
Traditional sports photography captures a moment in motion: a striking serve, a forehand, a player’s face at the point of winning. Yarrow instead focuses on permanence. By staging McEnroe and Borg outside the area of live competition, he transforms their rivalry into iconography. The image becomes a reflection of their legacy: how the sport is remembered, how personalities harden into archetypes, and how certain contests outgrow their original context.
In that sense, Yarrow doesn’t merely take a photo of the rivals; he reframes the narrative. This presents the players not as statistics or the results of matches they played but as cultural history.
The photograph that took them from players to icons:
In the photograph of McEnroe/Borg, Yarrow chooses not to revisit the Centre Court. By situating the scene in a period New York subway carriage, Yarrow anchors the image in the city that witnessed the rivalry’s final act. The 1981 US Open was not merely another meeting; it marked the moment Borg exited the sport’s biggest stages, at only 25. The choice of location, therefore, functions as historical punctuation. It also takes the rivalry away from the course to the subway, where there’s no net, no scoreboard, no competition, but instead something urban, everyday, and public.
McEnroes stands front and centre, holding a guitar, a nod to his showmanship and volatility. Whilst Borg lingers further back, composed and restrained. Notably, while McEnroe appears as himself, Borg is represented by a carefully styled double. The substitution underscores the distance between present and past. This is not a documentary reunion, but a reconstruction, a reminder that rivalries endure in retelling as much as in reality.
The choice to have McEnroe holding an electric guitar was deliberately placed to represent his volatility, famous left-hand, and theatricality, which often drew as much attention as the titles. The guitar also plays a role in positioning him as a performer rather than a competitor. Whereas Borg is positioned further back, still holding the tennis racket, keeping him anchored to the sport. The spatial contrast quietly mirrors the psychological dynamic that defined their rivalry: fire and ice, spectacle against restraint. The image becomes less about a point played and more about how the rivalry has endured in memory.
Learn more about Yarrow’s artist’s process for this photograph here.
What does the Photography of this heated rivalry represent?
David Yarrow’s sports photography positions the artwork as three things simultaneously:
- Competitive Duality – The fire versus ice, emotion versus control
- The mythology of unfinished greatness: A rivalry that ended not with a decline, but with sudden absence.
- The transition from athlete to icon – how time distils performance into legend.
Yarrow, in revisiting this tense sporting rivalry decades later, highlighted something sports themselves cannot: distance. The immediacy of competition fades, but the symbolism permeates.
Original David Yarrow editions are available through select international galleries such as Art Angels. Every piece is issued with a signed certificate of authenticity and full provenance records, ensuring confidence in acquisition. Art Angels facilitates global delivery from its Los Angeles and Miami galleries.