Jimmy Connors, The former number one tennis ace
The former top ranked American tennis ace James Scott "Jimmy" Connors was born on 2nd September, 1952 in East St. Louis, Illinois. He is famously known as one of the finest tennis players of all times. He was listed in the world’s top ranking for 160 weeks in a row from July 29th 1974 to August 29, 1977 along with an additional eight occasions throughout his professional career. He grabbed a total of eight Grand Slam singles trophies as well as two Grand Slam doubles championships along with his partner Ilie Nastase. Jimmy was also a runner up along with Chris Evert at the United States Open tournament back in 1974. Moreover, he is also an ex- coach of the American tennis ace, Andy Roddick who won the US Open back in 2003.
Even though, Jimmy never triumphed in a French Open championship, his win at the 1976 US Open came during the short period (1975–77) when the event was held on clay court. Jimmy therefore along with four other people is the one who triumphed in a Grand Slam Singles tournament on hard, grass and clay courts. Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal as well as Mats Wilander share the same record with Jimmy.
Connors contested in his first ever international tennis match back in 1970. The American tennis ace recorded his first major win in the round number one of the Pacific South west Open championship in Los Angeles, knocking down Roy Emerson. The next year, Connors grabbed his first NCAA singles title as well. He turned pro in 1972 and succeeded in his first championship at Jacksonville.
Jimmy earned a reputation as a maverick back in 1972 when he rejected the joining invitation of Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), a group that was welcomed by majority of the professional tennis players. He kept away from majority of professional tennis in order to contest in and rule in a series of smaller events conducted by his promoter and coach named, Bill Riordan.
The year 1974 proved to be a wonderful season for Jimmy in terms of his professional tennis career. The only single Grand Slam tournament that he lost was the French Open championship. He triumphed in the Australian Open, knocking down Phil Dent in a total of four sets in the final match where as he defeated Ken Rosewall in straight sets of both the United States Open as well as Wimbledon Championship.
His expulsion from the French Open tournament likely stopped him from becoming the first tennis athlete from the men’s side since Rod Laver to triumph in all the four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a single year. Although Connors made his way into the semi finals on four occasions, but he never succeeded in a French Open, and thus failed to accomplish a career Grand Slam.
Connors was listed the World No. 1 player on July 29, 1974, and stayed there for 160 weeks in a row, which was the reputation until Roger Federer equalled it back in February 26, 2007.
Connors held the number one spot in the world’s rankings for a total of 268 weeks during his entire professional tennis career.
In 1975, Connors ended as runner-up in all the three Grand Slam singles championships he had succeeded a year earlier.
The 1975 grass court final was a contest between lawsuit challengers, as Connors fell down to Ashe in one of the greatest ever upsets in the history of international tennis. Later on, Connors skipped the lawsuits and paired with Riordan.
Jimmy in the season 1975, triumphed in two highly rated “Big matches”, both organized by Riordan and were televised nationally by a channel named CBS Sports.
The player with the best service returns in the game of tennis experienced a lot of shining moments against a couple of top class players such as Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Guillermo Vilas, Mikael Pernfors, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, Michael Chang as well as Aaron Krickstein.
The 1.77 meters tall Jimmy was however not that successful in doubles as compared to his singles record all through his tennis career. The man retired from the international tennis in 1996 however his contributions as a player in the world of tennis still speaks high even in the modern day tennis.
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