Jimmy Connors
James Scott ("Jimmy") Connors (born
September 2,
1952 in
East St. Louis, Illinois) is a former
American tennis champion who was the
World No. 1 player for 5 consecutive years. During his career, he won eight
Grand Slam singles titles and two Grand Slam doubles titles. He is generally considered to be one of the top male tennis players of all time.
Connors went to college for a year at
UCLA, where he won the
NCAA singles title in
1971. He turned professional in
1972, and won his first professional title later that year at
Jacksonville, Florida.
Connors' extreme competitiveness on court quickly made him stand out. He simply refused to ever accept that he was beaten and gave absolutely everything on every point of every game, no matter how apparently hopeless the cause. He was also not averse to playing to the crowd (he once remarked that "I want to bring the crowd into the match: in short, turn it into a football game") or abusing his opponent or the umpire—anything he could think of to give himself an edge. His brash behaviour both on and off court came to earn him a reputation as the brat of the tennis world. He acquired the nickname of the "Brash Basher of
Belleville" (after the
St Louis suburb where he grew up). His high-profile romance with fellow teen tennis prodigy
Chris Evert in the early years of his career also helped to keep him in the headlines.
Connors also acquired a reputation as a
maverick in 1972 when he refused to join the newly formed
Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the union which was embraced by most male professional players. He avoided the mainstream of professional tennis to play in, and dominate, a series of smaller tournaments organized by
Bill Riordan, his manager and a clever promoter.
In
1974, Connors and Riordan began bringing lawsuits, eventually amounting to US$10 million, against the ATP and its President
Arthur Ashe for allegedly restricting his freedom in the game. It started when Connors was banned from the
French Open in 1974 after he had signed a contract to play World Team Tennis (WTT) for
Baltimore (the ATP and the French administration opposed WTT because it conflicted with their tournament, and the entries of all WTT players were refused).
As it turned out, the French Open was the only major tournament which Connors did not win that year and his exclusion possibly prevented him from becoming the first male player since
Rod Laver to win all four Grand Slam titles in one year. Though he would progress as far as the semifinals on four occasions, Connors would never prevail at the French Open. However, in 1974, Connors won the
Australian Open, defeating
Phil Dent in four sets in the final. Connors then beat
Ken Rosewall in straight sets in the finals of both
Wimbledon and the
US Open. He won a total of 14 tournaments that year.
Connors reached the World No. 1 ranking in July 1974, and held it for 159 straight weeks. Over the course of his career, he held the World No. 1 ranking for a total of 263 weeks.
1975 saw Connors finish runner-up in the three Grand Slams he had won the year before. The 1975 Wimbledon final proved to be a duel between lawsuit opponents, as Connors faced ATP President Arthur Ashe. Ashe won, and shortly thereafter Connors dropped the suits and parted with Riordan.
In
1976, Connors met
Björn Borg in the final of the US Open and saved four set points in a thrilling third-set tie-breaker (which Connors won 11–9) to beat the Swede 6–4, 3–6, 7–6, 6–4.
Despite his success, Connors remained an independent character with little respect for traditions and other people's expectations. At Wimbledon in
1977, he refused to take part in a parade of former champions to celebrate the tournament's centenary, and was booed when he went out to play the following day. He still managed to make the final at Wimbledon that year, but lost to Borg in a thrilling five-set final. He also lost in the final of the US Open to
Guillermo Vilas. Having irritated sponsors and tennis officials by shunning the end-of-year
Masters championships for the previous three years, Connors entered the competition for the first time in 1977 and beat Borg in the final to win the event.
Borg beat Connors comfortably in the
1978 Wimbledon final, but Connors came back and stunned the Swede in straight sets in the US Open final to win 6–4, 6–2, 6–2 in the first final to be held at the new
Flushing Meadows venue.
With this US Open win, Jimmy Connors became the first (and only) male tennis player to win this tournament on three different surfaces: Grass (
1974), Clay (
1976), and Hard Court (
1978).
After a few less successful years on the tour, Connors was back in the Wimbledon final again in
1982 where he faced the new young star of the tennis world,
John McEnroe. Connors stunned the defending-champion as he came back from being three points away from defeat in a fourth-set tie-breaker to win in five sets and claim his second Wimbledon title eight years after his first.
Connors also got the better of another of the next generation of tennis stars,
Ivan Lendl, in the US Open final in both 1982 and
1983.
Connors last Grand Slam final came at Wimbledon in
1984, where he again faced McEnroe. This time McEnroe put in a superlative performance and blew Connors off the court in straight sets 6–1, 6–1, 6–2. Though beaten, Connors' competitive fire was certainly not dampened. Asked afterwards if he now admitted his rival was the better player, he simply replied: "Never".
Considered a feisty wiseguy in his earlier days, Connors gradually transformed himself into a respected elder of the tennis world in the later years of his career. He continued to compete forcefully against much younger men until he was well into his 41st year.
The defining moment of Connors' later career came in
1991. His career had seemed to be at an end in
1990, when he played only three tournament matches (and lost all three), dropping to No. 936 in the world rankings. But after surgery on his deteriorating left wrist, he came back to play 14 tournaments in 1991, climaxing with a phenomenal run at the US Open. While celebrating his 39th birthday during the championships, Connors powered his way all the way through to the semi-final before finally being beaten by the reigning French Open champion
Jim Courier.
During his career, Connors won a record 109 men's singles titles. He also won 15 doubles titles (including the men's doubles titles at Wimbledon in
1973 and the US Open in 1975).
In his 1979 autobiography,
Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranks Connors as one of the 21 best players of all time.
[ Kramer considered the best player ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best.] Connors was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame in
Newport, Rhode Island in
1998 and has his own star on the
St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Connors and
Chris Evert had planned to marry in October 1974 but it was called off. However,in 1980 he married the model
Patti McGuire and they now have two children. Connors has also been rumored as of May 2006 to be in a deal to coach Andy Roddick. On July 24, 2006, Andy Roddick formally announced his partnership with Connors at the start of the Countrywide Classic tournament in Los Angeles.
Wins (8)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1974 | Australian Open | Phil Dent | 7–6, 6–4, 4–6, 6–3 |
| 1974 | Wimbledon | Ken Rosewall | 6–1, 6–1, 6–4 |
| 1974 | U.S. Open | Ken Rosewall | 6–1, 6–0, 6–1 |
| 1976 | U.S. Open (2)| Björn Borg | 6–4, 3–6, 7–6, 6–4 | | 1978 | U.S. Open (3)| Björn Borg | 6–4, 6–2, 6–2 | | 1982 | Wimbledon (2)| John McEnroe | 3–6, 6–3, 6–7, 7–6, 6–4 | | 1982 | U.S. Open (4)| Ivan Lendl | 6–3, 6–2, 4–6, 6–4 | | 1983 | U.S. Open (5)| Ivan Lendl | 6–3, 6–7, 7–5, 6–0 | | | | | |
Runner-ups (7)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1975 | Australian Open | John Newcombe | 7–5, 3–6, 6–4, 7–5 |
| 1975 | Wimbledon | Arthur Ashe | 6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 6–4 |
| 1975 | U.S. Open | Manuel Orantes | 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 |
| 1977 | Wimbledon | Björn Borg | 3–6, 6–2, 6–1, 5–7, 6–4 |
| 1977 | U.S. Open | Guillermo Vilas | 2–6, 6–3, 7–5, 6–0 |
| 1978 | Wimbledon | Björn Borg | 6–2, 6–2, 6–3 |
| 1984 | Wimbledon | John McEnroe | 6–1, 6–1, 6–2 |
Australian Open
*Singles champion: 1974
** Singles losing finalist: 1975
(Connors never again played at the Australian Open after his loss in the 1975 final.)Wimbledon
*Singles champion: 1974, 1982
** Singles losing finalist: 1975, 1977, 1978, 1984
*Doubles champion: 1973
US Open
*Singles champion: 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1983
** Singles losing finalist: 1975, 1977
*Doubles champion: 1975
*
1222-269 (record of ATP events Singles wins—does not include WTT wins)#1 most all-time in ATP Wins
Singles champion (105) (4 non-ATP tour wins not listed): *1972 - Queens, Columbus,
Cincinnati, Albany, Jacksonville
*1973 - Roanoke, Baltimore, Salisbury, Paramus, Hampton, Salt Lake City, Columbus, Boston, Quebec, L.A., Johannesburg
*
1974 -
Australian Open (Grass), Roanoke, Little Rock, Birmingham, Salisbury, Hampton, Salt Lake City, Tempe,
Wimbledon, Indianapolis,
US Open (Grass), L.A., London, Johannesburg
*
1975 - Bahamas, Birmingham, Salisbury, Boca Raton, Hampton, Denver WCT, North Conway, Bermuda, Maui
*
1976 - Birmingham, Philadelphia WCT, Hampton, Palm Springs, Denver WCT, Las Vegas, Washington, North Conway, Indianapolis,
US Open (Clay), Cologne, Wembley
*
1977 - Birmingham WCT, St. Louis WCT, Las Vegas, Dallas WCT, Maui, Sydney Indoor,
Masters*
1978 - Philadelphia WCT, Denver, Memphis, Rotterdam WTC, Birmingham, Washington, Indianapolis, Stowe,
US Open (Hard), Sydney Indoor
*1979 - Birmingham, Philadelphia, Memphis, Tulsa, Indianapolis, Stowe, Hong Kong
*1980 - Birmingham, Philadelphia, Dallas WCT, North Conway, Republic Of China, Tokyo Indoor
*1981 - La Quinta, Brussels, Rotterdam, Wembley
*
1982 - Monterrey, L.A., Las Vegas, Queens,
Wimbledon, Columbus,
US Open (Hard)
*1983 - Memphis, Las Vegas, Queens,
US Open (Hard)
*1984 - Memphis, La Quinta, Boca West, L.A., Tokyo Indoor
*1988 - Washington, Toulouse
*1989 - Toulouse, Tel Aviv
Singles losing finalist (49) (5 non-ATP tour finals not listed):*1971 - Columbus, Los Angeles
*1972 - Baltimore, Indianapolis, Washington
*1973 - Bretton Woods, Omaha
*1974 - Omaha, South Orange
*1975 -
Australian Open, London, New York, Stockholm,
Wimbledon,
US Open*1976 - La Costa, Salisbury
*1977 - Indianapolis, Pepsi Grand Slam, Philadelphia WCT, Toronto Indoor WCT,
Wimbledon,
US Open*1978 - Pepsi Grand Slam,
Wimbledon*1979 - Las Vegas, Pepsi Grand Slam, Tokyo Indoor
*1980 - Memphis, San Jose
*1981 -
Hamburg*1982 - Milan, Philadelphia, Rotterdam, San Francisco
*1983 - Wembley
*1984 - Dallas WCT,
Wimbledon*1985 - Chicago, Fort Myers
*1986 -
Cincinnati, Fort Myers, London/Queen's Club, San Francisco
*1987 - London/Queen's Club, Memphis, Orlando
*1988 -
Key Biscayne, Milan
*
Official ATP Profile*
International Tennis Hall of Fame Profile*
BBC Profile
