Former professional basketball player Jimmy Connors was once the number 1 in the world. Jimmy is described as an experienced player who loved to play tennis since childhood, and combined with the fact that his mother was also a former tennis player, he had the right platform to show off his skills.
Jimmy, who was also a very passionate player, left college to pursue his dreams, and in retrospect, the former world number one tennis player definitely made the right move, as his efforts in the sport earned him well-deserved international recognition.
Jimmy Connors Bio
Jimmy Connors is a former tennis player born under the full name of James Scott Connors on September 2, 1952, in East St. Louis, Illinois. His parents are James Sr. and Gloria Connors, but he was raised by his grandmother Bertha Thompson and his mother Gloria, a former professional tennis player, who cleared some of the lands on their property to build a training ground for their son. At the age of nine, he participated in the U.S. Under-11 Championship, and when he turned sixteen, he began to be coached by Pancho Segura.
He studied at St. Phillip’s Grade School with his brother Johnny Corners before going to the University of California, Los Angles, where he played tennis for a year and won the NCAA singles title, which also earned him All-American status. After one year he left college to pursue a professional career.
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Professional Career
Jimmy Connors began his professional career in 1972 and won the Jacksonville Open, his first tournament that year. He was known as an independent person because he refused to belong to the Association of Tennis Professionals, an organization that hosted the majority of male professional players, and decided to participate in an independent tournament organized by his manager Bill Riordan. He toppled Arthur Ashe in a five-set final and won the pros’ singles in 1973, which was his first major title.
By the late 1970s, he had reached the pinnacle of his career, winning the US Open five times, Wimbledon twice, an Australian Open, and a total of eight Grand Slam singles titles. In 1974 he was disqualified from the French Open because he was an active member of the world tennis team.
In the course of his career, Jimmy Connors played twice in the Australian Open, and out of 21 tournaments in which he participated, he won 15 of them. He was among the six men who won three or more Grand Slam titles in a year, including players such as Rod Laver, Mats Wilander, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. He reached the finals of the US Open and the Australian Open in 1975, but unfortunately, he could not score a victory.
The following year he maintained his ATP No. 1 ranking and was considered by some tennis sources to be the best player of the year, but was not named by the ATP as they voted Björn Borg Player of the Year. The following year he lost to Borg at Wimbledon and was voted 3rd by the ATP and other tennis federations.
Jimmy Connors experienced a renewal of his élan in 1982 when he defeated John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl to win the Wimbledon and US Open respectively, maintaining his ATP ranking as number one. He ended the year as the best player of the year in the ATP and other tennis bodies when he won the US Open and Wimbledon again, although he was number 2. The following year he won the US Open for the fifth time and became number 3 in the rankings.
Other Works
After an active tennis career, Jimmy Connors took the step to become a sports commentator for NBC-TV in 1990 and worked alongside John McEnroe for the BBC as a run commentator at the French Open and Wimbledon tournaments from 2005 to 2007. He has also been a commentator for Tennis Channe at the 2009 US Open tournament and another for the BBC at Wimbledon in 2014.
Jimmy Connors also took on coaching roles in 2006 and is said to have coached Andy Roddick in 2006, Roger Federer in 2008, and Maria Sharapova in 2013. In addition to his professional tennis career, Jimmy Connors is also a writer and has published a book entitled “The Outsider”, an autobiography that won the British Sports Book Award in 2013.
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Family: Wife & Children
Jimmy Connors began dating Chris Evert, an American professional tennis player, in 1974, but the relationship ended a year later. The duo got back together in 1976 but finally split up after two years. He subsequently accused Chris Evert of aborting their child. Then he got involved with Marjorie Wallace, a former Miss World, but the relationship didn’t last long as they separated after a year.
After two unsuccessful relationships, he married Patti McGuire, a Playboy model, in 1979 and has been with her ever since. The relationship is blessed with two children; a son Brett Corner and a daughter Aubrey Corner.
Jimmy Connors Net Worth
Jimmy Connors has amassed a huge amount of money from his career, as sources say he has an estimated net worth of more than $12 million.
Height
Jimmy has a well-built athletic body figure, which is complemented by his gigantic height of 178 cm (5 feet 10 inches).
