The 1977 Wimbledon men's singles semifinal: Björn Borg vs. Vitas Gerulaitis appears in Andy Warhol's diary as both a three-hour sporting contest and the center of a New York gathering. The entry's distinctive perspective is social rather than courtside: the match is experienced through the people watching, talking about, and arriving around it.

The Match at Richard Weisman's

On Monday, August 22, 1977, Warhol took a cab to Richard Weisman's home with Susan Johnson and Jed Johnson. By the time they arrived, everyone was already watching the Wimbledon match. The contest lasted three hours, making it the evening's continuing focus, while the diary follows the spectators and the players' movements around it.

Borg and Gerulaitis were not there when the group first began watching; they had been having dinner together. Later, Gerulaitis arrived with a girlfriend, while Borg had gone home after dinner. The entry records this shifting presence without claiming that either player joined the gathering: the match remained on as the people associated with it came and went.

The Players as Spectacle

The spectators teased Gerulaitis about wearing his gold coke-cutter razorblade around his neck during the match. The joke places the tournament alongside the distinctive jewelry and playful ribbing of the evening, turning an athlete's public image into material for the room's conversation.

Gerulaitis was training. He left early and had eaten only a plum. The diary sets those details against the gathering's plentiful drinking and explicit absence of cocaine, giving the scene a contrast between his disciplined preparation and the spectators' indulgent evening. The match is thus recorded not only by its three-hour duration but through the habits and anecdotes attached to its players.

Susan Johnson and the Gathering

The match also formed the background to Susan Johnson's disappointment about the women she saw with the athletes. She felt hurt that the men were accompanied by women who were tall, slender, blonde, and long-haired, while she described herself in contrast as cute, small, and brown-haired. Her reaction makes the gathering's sports talk personal: the glamorous image surrounding the players becomes a standard against which she measures herself.

Johnson had recently discovered New York/New York, and the entry notes that she needed a new man after her affair with Billy Copley had not worked out. These details place her hurt within a wider concern about romance and appearance, rather than treating it as an incidental response to the match. The diary's account holds the sporting contest and the gathering's private comparisons together, showing how a major match could serve as both shared entertainment and a setting for personal unease.