Jimmy Connors Biography - Molded By His Mother To Become A Champion, Became A Grand Slam Champion, Chronology, "bad Boy" Of American Tennis - CONTACT INFORMATION, SELECTED WRITINGS BY CONNORS:
player court tournament sport
1952-
American tennis player
Jimmy Connors, has been one of the most recognizable American tennis players for four decades. The left-handed player was known for his two-handed backhand and powerful return-of-serve which helped him win eight Grand Slam championships. In particular, Connors won the U.S. Open championship five times and he is the only player to win this tournament on three different surfaces—grass, clay, and hard court. Connors is the all-time male leader in tournament wins with 109. He also held the number one ranking in men's tennis for a record 160 weeks from 1974 until 1977. Aside from these accomplishments, Connors was known for his emotional outbursts on the court. Connors claimed that his on-court antics added flavor and entertainment to the sport, but his critics considered his actions classless. Whether he was loved or hated by the fans or the media, Connors's passion for the sport brought fans, press, and sponsors to the game of tennis. Connors played professional tennis past his 40th birthday and then he started the Champions Tour for male players over thirty-five years old.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: Tennis Management Inc., 109 Red Fox Rd, Belleville, IL 62223-2242.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY CONNORS:
(With Neil Gordon). Don't Count Yourself Out. Staying Fit After 35, Hyperion, 1992.
Sketch by Janet P. Stamatel
Additional Topics
James Scott Connors, Jr., known to the world simply as Jimmy Connors, was born on September 2, 1952 in East St. Louis, Illinois. His father, "Big Jim" Connors, worked as a toll bridge attendant and he was the son of the mayor of East St. Louis. His mother, Gloria Thompson Connors, was a tennis teacher who learned the sport from her own mother, Bertha Thompson. Gloria was determined t…
Connors continued to win titles at a record pace. In only a year he reached the number one ranking in the United States, tying Stan Smith. In 1973 he also won the Wimbledon doubles title with Ilie Nastase. By 1974, only his second year as a professional, Connors was winning Grand Slam singles events. He began the year by winning the Australian Open, and he then went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S…
Connors gained public attention not only from his powerful two-handed backhand and his excellent return-of-serve, but also for his emotional outbursts and antics on the court. "He has been called tennis champion, punk, maverick, and street fighter rolled into one," wrote Daniel B. Wood of the Christian Science Monitor in April of 1985. "When he's up, he struts like a ro…
After suffering a drought at the Grand Slams for a few years after he was married, Connors rededicated himself to tennis in the early 1980s. In 1982 he won Grand Slam singles titles at Wimbledon and on the hard courts of the US. Open. He repeated his U.S. Open victory again in 1983, which was his 100th tournament title. In both U.S. Open finals Connors defeated Ivan Lendle. "It wasn'…
While Connors never officially retired from tennis, he did not play full time after 1992. Injuries and age forced Connors to pursue other interests, although he never lost his passion for tennis. In 1995 he played in two ATP tournaments, and he even reached the quarterfinals finals in Halle, Germany. Most of the tennis Connors played in the 1990s was on the Champions Tour, the over-35 male tennis …
Although Connors stopped playing the professional tennis circuit full time after his 1991 comeback at the U.S. Open, he never stopped playing tennis. Connors still competed sporadically on the ATP tour until about 1996. In 1993 he organized the Champions Tour for men over thirty-five years old and he dominated that circuit for several years. In 2001 he was still ranked in the top twenty of the sen…
Collins, Bud, and Zander Hollander (eds.). Bud Collins' Tennis Encyclopedia. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1997. St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. Atkin, Ronald. "Interview: John McEnroe—First Among Senior Citizens; He's Old, He's Loud and He's Back, Talking Up His Rivalry with Jimmy Connors." Independent (Nove…
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