The score of the fourth set tiebreak. Thirty-four points, twenty-two minutes, and it is on the print because it is the most famous single game in the sport.
Two opposites
Borg, twenty-four, was chasing a fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. His on-court demeanour was so unvarying that it became the defining thing said about him.
McEnroe, twenty-one, had spent the fortnight arguing with officials and had been booed repeatedly, including in his semi final against Jimmy Connors. He came into the final as the pantomime villain.
The tiebreak
Borg held five championship points during it. McEnroe saved all five. McEnroe held six set points. Borg saved all six.
McEnroe took it 18-16. The Centre Court crowd, which had been against him all tournament, gave him a standing ovation that ran for several minutes, and the atmosphere of the match inverted.
The fifth set
The expectation in the stadium was that Borg was finished. He had held five match points and failed to convert any of them.
In the fifth set he did not lose a point on his first serve. Not one, in the entire set. He broke McEnroe at 7-6 and served it out to win 8-6.
Final score: 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6.
What followed
McEnroe beat Borg in the 1981 Wimbledon final, ending the streak at five, and beat him again at the US Open that September.
Borg left the stadium in New York without attending the presentation. He played almost nothing after that and formally retired in January 1983, at twenty-six, with eleven major titles.
The usual explanation is burnout. Borg has described it as simply having nothing left to prove and no desire to continue.
What McEnroe says
He has said repeatedly that the 1980 final is the match he is most proud of, and that the loss is part of the reason.
Why it goes on a wall
Because the most celebrated passage of play in tennis history was won by the man who lost the match, and because the response to losing it was the most extraordinary set of serving anybody has produced.
Eighteen sixteen, and Borg still won.