Jimmy connors age
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Jimmy Connors Biography: Relentless Competitor
Jimmy Connors is one of the legends in tennis history. He won 8 Grand Slam titles and still has the record for the number of ATP titles. Here is our Jimmy Connors biography.
Jimmy Connors, born on September 2, 1952, in East St. Louis, Illinois, is one of tennis’s most iconic figures, known for his fiery temperament, relentless competitiveness, and exceptional longevity in the sport. Throughout his career, Connors won eight Grand Slam singles titles and is remembered as one of the greatest tennis players of his era. Let’s delve deep into his life and career.
We have written other biographies on players like Andre Agassi or Stefan Edberg.
Early Life and Training:
James Scott Connors, often known as “Jimbo,” was born into a tennis-loving family. His mother, Gloria, also his primary coach in his formative years, introduced him to the game when he was barely two. Under the tutelage of his mother and grandmother, a two-time national champion in her age group, Connors honed his craft on the public courts of East
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Appearing on the YES Network show Center Stage in 2014 to promote his book The Outsider, Jimmy Connors was asked by host Michael Kay if it was “nice being called a tennis legend?”
“I like hearing that,” Connors said with a broad smile and a nod of his head.
Connors’s place in history is well established: He was perhaps the most rebellious player to ever play, a combative, relentless, and driven athlete whom tennis analyst Mary Carillo said was “one of the most important tennis players of the modern era.” Connors never, ever made apologies for his on-court behavior, his maniacal competitive drive or his nomadic approach that kept him isolated and distanced from his tour counterparts. There was no middle ground with Jimmy Connors – he was adored or disliked, but nothing in-between. “I was not about establishment,” Connors told ESPN’s 30 for 30. “Being an outsider drove me to being able to play better. It became me against everyone else. I wasn’t going out there to win friends. I was going out there to win tennis matches.”
The incorrigible Connors won eight major singl
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By Larry Schwartz
Special to ESPN.com
He was raised by women to conquer men, and that's exactly what Jimmy Connors did. He conquered them, as he had been taught by his mother and grandmother, on the tennis courts.
Connors won five United States Open titles, and he is the only player to win this Grand Slam event on three different surfaces. He won two Wimbledons and one Australian Open. For five consecutive years in the 1970s, the left-handed dynamo was ranked No. 1 at the end of the year. He is the all-time leader in pro singles titles with 109 and matches won at the U.S. Open (98) and Wimbledon (84).
| When Jimmy Connors got on a roll, such as the one he rode at the 1991 U.S. Open, he let the crowd know and then fed off of its emotional response. |
His biggest weapons were an indomitable spirit, a two-handed backhand and the best service return in the game. It is difficult to say which was more instrumental in Connors becoming a champion.
He was born Sept. 2, 1952 in Belleville, Ill., just a
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