Retired Swedish tennis great Bjorn Borg was rushed to the hospital Tuesday and released following what police initially said appeared to be an overdose of barbiturates.
Borg had his stomach pumped at the emergency room of Polyclinic Hospital after becoming ill at the apartment of his fiancee, the Italian pop singer Loredana Berte.
The five-time Wimbledon champion was discharged and permitted to return to Berte’s home four hours later.
‘I’m well,’ a smiling Borg said at the yellow house in a residential neighborhood where Berte owns a ground-floor apartment. ‘It’s all over.’
‘Go away, everybody,’ Berte said. She disconnected the telephone and ordered her maid and porter not to admit anyone.
Police said it appeared Borg swallowed barbiturates in an attempt to commit suicide. Hospital sources told the Italian news agency ANSA he had taken 60 sedatives
Borg’s personal adviser, Ingmar Alvedal, insisted the retired star was not trying to kill himself. He said Borg told him by telephone he took ill after eating dinner at a restaurant.
‘I can definitely deny it was a suicide attempt,’ Alvedal told Swedish radio. ‘Borg felt ill after a dinner at a restaurant and took about three pills to help him fall asleep. Later during the night he felt even worse and went to the hospital where doctors decided to pump his stomach.’
Mara Savastano, a member of Berte’s pop group, attributed Borg’s illness to bad meat. Alessandro Raci, another friend, said Borg took several tablets of the sedative Roipnol because he could not sleep.
Alvedal said Borg probably had wine at the restaurant but doubted the mix of alcohol and pills caused the stomach problems.
‘Borg never drinks much alcohol,’ Alvedal said. ‘And he rarely takes sleeping pills, only sometimes when he has a jet lag.’
Berte telephoned the Red Cross foran ambulance at about 9 a.m. Neighbors said Borg looked as though he were drowsing when carried from the house on a stretcher.
Berte accompanied Borg to the hospital, wearing a coat over her nightgown, and stayed beside him as his stomach was pumped.
The couple had returned to Milan Friday and were scheduled to leave in two days for Portugal and Sweden.
Borg and Berte have been together several years and announced recently they intended to marry. However, the Catholic Church has obstructed their scheduled Feb. 26 wedding in Milan because it has not approved their previous divorces.
Borg shares custody of his son Robin, 3, with his former girlfriend, Jannike Bjorling.
Borg ranked No. 1 in tennis from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. He won five consecutive Wimbledon titles starting in 1976, the French Open six times between 1974 and 1981 and the Italian Open and the Masters twice. His earnings totaled more than $3.5 million.
Defeated by John McEnroe at Wimbledon in 1981, he retired in 1982. He tried a comeback seven months later and pulled out for good in 1983, becoming a successful businessman.
In 1980 Borg married Romanian tennis star Mariana Simonescu, whom he began dating on the circuit in 1976. They divorced four years later with Borg reportedly giving her a $14 million settlement.
Borg met Bjorling in 1984 when he was a judge in a beauty contest she did not win. In 1985, he returned to Sweden from the tax haven of Monte Carlo to live with her. They separated in early 1988.
Borg and Berte first met in 1973 when she was the girlfriend of Italian tennis star Adriano Panatta. They met again in Japan last year and began living together a few months later.
Berte, 36, once posed for Playboy magazine. She is awaiting a divorce from Italian businessman Roberto Berger.
‘There is not the least bitterness,’ Bjorling said in Monday’s edition of the Swedish newpaper Aftonbladet. ‘If Bjorn and Loredana now may marry, I wish them good luck.
‘They compliment each other. What she has is probably the answer to his fantasies. Bjorn has been lucky in business. Now he really needs to be lucky in love.’
