Jimmy Connors Biography

Jimmy Connors whose birth name is James Scott Connors. He is is a retired American world No. 1 tennis player who held the top ATP ranking for a then-record. 

By virtue of his long and prolific career, Connors still holds three prominent Open Era men’s singles records: 109 titles, 1,556 matches played, and 1,274 match wins. His titles include eight majors (five US Open, two Wimbledon, one Australian Open), three year-end championships, and 17 Grand Prix Super Series. In 1974, he became the second man in the Open Era to win three majors in a calendar year, and his total career match win rate remains in the top five of the era. He retired in 1996 at the age of 43.

Jimmy Connors Age

Jimmy Connors was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, United States on September 2, 1952. He is currently 67 years as of 2019.

Jimmy Connors Early Life

His parents are James Sr. and Gloria Connors but he was raised by his grandmother Bertha Thompson and his mum Gloria, a former professional tennis player who would clear a portion of land in their compound to build a training court for her son. At age nine, he participated in the Under 11 US Boys Championship and when he turned sixteen, he began to be trained by Pancho Segura.

He studied at the St. Phillip’s Grade School with his brother Johnny Corners before he proceeded to the University of California, Los Angles where he played tennis for one year, winning the NCAA singles title also achieving All-American status. He quit college after one year to pursue a professional career.

Jimmy Connors Wife

Jimmy Connors started dating Chris Evert, an American professional tennis player in 1974 but the relationship ended one year after. The duo later reunited in 1976 but parted ways finally after two years. He subsequently accused Chris Evert of aborting their child. He then got involved with Marjorie Wallace, a former Miss World but the relationship didn’t last for quite long as they both parted ways after one year.

After two unsuccessful relationships, he got married to Patti McGuire, a Playboy Model in 1979 and has been with her ever since. The union is blessed with two children; a son Brett Corner and a daughter Aubrey Corner.

Jimmy Connors Career

Jimmy Connors began his professional career in 1972 and won the Jacksonville Open, being his first tournament that same year. He was known as an independent person because he rejected being part of the Association of Tennis Professional, an organization that houses most male professional players and decided to play in an independent tournament his manager Bill Riordan had organized. He overthrew Arthur Ashe in a five-set final, winning the 1973 Pro single, which was his first major title.

By the late 1970’s, he had gotten to the pinnacle of his career, winning the US Open five times, the Wimbledon twice, one Australian Open and recording in all, a total of eight Grand Slam singles championships. He was barred from playing in the French Open in 1974 because he was an active member of the World Team Tennis.

Throughout his career, Jimmy Connors played in the Australia Open twice and out of 21 tournaments he participated in, he won 15 of them. He was amongst the six men that won three or more grand slam titles in a year, including the likes of Rod Laver, Mats Wilander, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. He was in the finals of the US Open and Australian Open in 1975 but unfortunately, he did not record any victory.

In the subsequent year he still maintained his ATP No. 1 ranking and was a said to have won the best player of the year according to some tennis sources but he was not named by the ATP as they chose Björn Borg as their player of the year. In the following year, he lost to Borg in Wimbledon and was ranked 3rd by ATP and other tennis bodies.

Jimmy Connors witnessed a renewal of vigor in 1982 when Jimmy Connors defeated John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl to win the Wimbledon and US Open respectively still maintaining his ATP No. 1 ranking. He finished that year as the best player of the year by ATP and other tennis bodies as he won the US Open and Wimbledon again even though he ranked No 2. In the subsequent year, he won the US Open for the fifth time and was ranked No. 3 player.

After an active tennis career, Jimmy Connors ventured into sports commentary in 1990 with NBC-TV and made ran commentary in the French Open and Wimbledon tournaments from 2005 till 2007 alongside John McEnroe for BBC. He also ran the commentary for Tennis Channe in the 2009 US Open tournament and another for BBC in 2014 at Wimbledon.

Jimmy Connors also took up coaching roles in 2006 and he is said to have coached Andy Roddick in 2006, Roger Federer in 2008 and Maria Sharapova in 2013. Aside from his professional tennis career, Jimmy is also an author, and he has published a book titled “ The Outsider” which is an autobiography that won the British Sports Book Award in 2013.

Jimmy Connors Awards and Achievements

• Winner of eight Grand Slam singles titles and two Grand Slam doubles titles, Jimmy Connors dominated the world of tennis throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The first male player to have held the No. 1 rank in world tennis, there is no doubt he is one of the legends who made tennis their passion.His Grand Slam single titles include: Australian Open (1974), Wimbledon (1974, 1982), US Open (1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1983)
• In 1982, he was named the World Champion by The International Tennis Federation (ITF).
• He received Player of the Year Award from The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1982 and the Comeback Player of the Year Award from the same organization in 1991.

Jimmy Connors Net Worth

Jimmy Connors has amassed a huge amount of money from his career as  his source of income  have it that he has an estimated net worth of more than $12 million.

Jimmy Connors 2019

The congratulations landing in Roger Federer’s inbox on Saturday night included a Twitter message from Jimmy Connors – the 1970s great who is the only other men’s player to have lifted 100 tour-level titles.“Welcome to the ‘Triple Digit’ tournament victory club @rogerfederer,” said Connors. “I’ve been a bit lonely – glad to have the company!”

Federer achieved his landmark in Saturday’s final at the Dubai Duty Free Championships, where he beat the rising Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas by a 6-4, 6-4 scoreline.

Admittedly, Connors’s 100th title had come in the rather more exalted surroundings of Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York, where he overcame Ivan Lendl in four sets to claim the 1983 US Open. But the Dubai final was still a joy to watch. While never really threatening to spoil the party, Tsitsipas still contributed some of his own handsome strokeplay to Federer’s magnificent win.

That was No. 100 in a sequence that began when Federer beat Julien Boutter in the 2001 Milan Indoor. The Telegraph spoke to three men who were on the losing side at crucial moments in the Federer story: Boutter himself, as well as Mark Philippoussis and Tommy Haas.In 2003, Philippoussis was the runner-up for Federer’s first Wimbledon title – which was also his maiden grand slam. Six years later, Federer completed the career grand slam by lifting the French Open for the only time in his career. In the fourth round, he trailed Haas by two sets, but managed to lift himself at the crucial moment.

This sort of competitive nous has been a significant part of the Federer story for the last couple of decades, even if it tends to get forgotten alongside all the dreamy shot-making. So could he go on and overhaul Connors’s world-leading tally of 109 titles?

At the press conference afterwards, Federer was asked about his first visit to the Dubai tournament, in 2002, where he lost in such lamentable fashion to Rainer Schuettler in the second round that the organisers were talking about withholding his appearance fee. “I was young and I was crazy and I was just so frustrated with my game,” he replied. “Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.”

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