Borg Targets 'Young Guns' In Belgium

Bjorn Borg will be giving away more than a decade to fellow Wimbledon champions Goran Ivanisevic and Richard Krajicek this week at the inaugural Optima Open in Knokke-Heist, Belgium, but the Swede is determined to show that he still has what it takes to win.

The 11-time Grand Slam Champion has been drawn in to Group A for the round robin stages of the event which starts on Friday, alongside the 1987 Wimbledon Champion Pat Cash and the 1988 French Open finalist Henri Leconte.

Speaking ahead of the tournament, the 54-year-old made it clear that he means business. “I’m coming to Knokke to win,” said Borg. “I love to come up against other past Champions. Most of them are a lot younger than me, which is why I have tried to stay in such good shape, so that I can still compete.”

Group B will see Croatian Ivanisevic take on Krajicek as well as the current French Davis Cup Captain Guy Forget. Ivanisevic told the ATP Champions Tour how pleased he was to be in Belgium with the chance to gain ground on his rival Thomas Enqvist, who is currently dominating the South African Airways Rankings in 2010 after winning the Vale Do Lobo Grand Champions Title in the Algarve last week to take his tally to six.

“I’ve been to Belgium before but not for 10 or 11 years so it’s nice to be back,” said Ivanisevic. “I’ve had some success in this country before so Belgium is a good place for me. Hopefully it will be the perfect place to make up some points as well and close the gap on Mr. Enqvist because at the moment he leads by 520 points. If I win here he will be only just ahead of me.”

Played at the prestigious Royal Zoute Tennis And Golf Club (August 20-22), Knokke-Heist is situated in the heart of the country’s Flemish-speaking Flanders region. It is considered to be one of Belgium’s most exclusive and affluent seaside resorts, and is a perfect destination for the ATP Champions Tour and its players.

Matches in Knokke are played over the best of three sets, with a Champions’ Tie-break (first to 10 points with a clear advantage of two) to decide the winner. After all round-robin matches are complete, the top two players in each group will meet in Sunday's final.

After Knokke, the ATP Champions Tour will move on to Paris, France for the seventh annual Jean-Luc Lagardere Trophy at the Stade Coubertin (October 1-3), and following that will arrive at the Sichuan Internatinal Tennis Centre for the second Chengdu Open (October 21-24).