#5 Favorite Athlete of All-Time: Jimmy Connors
I love seeing Jimmy Connors on the tennis court again. He disappeared from the tennis scene upon retirement in 1993, and he didn’t return until a few weeks ago when a struggling Andy Roddick hired him as his coach. Seeing Connors walking the hallowed grounds at Flushing Meadows this past week brought back such wonderful memories of the run he made at the U.S. Open in 1991 in which he got all the way to the semi-finals at the age of 39 before losing to Jim Courier.
I can specifically remember his fourth round match that year when he played 24 year-old Aaron Krickstein. Connors was behind 5–2 in the fifth set and he charged all the way back to force a tie-breaker. He pumped his fists. He pointed to the crowd. He ran all over the court as his adrenaline pumped furiously. And he won the tie-breaker 7–4.
Connors had an unbelievable career. He won 109 tournaments—far more than any other player (Ivan Lendl was second on the all-time list with 94 career tournaments wins). He won 8 majors—including the U.S. Open on three different surfaces (clay, grass, and hard court). He held the number one ranking for a total of 263 weeks in his career (159 of which where consecutive). And as impressive as all that it, I was still always taken by his passion for the game.
I can remember ordering a scholastic book about him when I was a young boy and then reading all about him. I have to confess though, when he played John McEnroe, I always rooted for Johnny Mac. I hated being neutral, and since I liked Mac better, I had to root against Jimmy. But I loved to watch them play each other. Mac would hit all sorts of angles and use various different spins. Jimmy would hit his T-2000 flatter than a pancake. They both played with their emotions on their sleeve. And it was a great rivalry. I watched them play so many times that I equate their matches with my teen years.
Unfortunately, Connors felt shunned by the sport toward the end of his career, so he walked away from tennis entirely. I don’t know how long his arrangement with Roddick will last, but even if it doesn’t last long, I hope that he Connors finds a way to stay involved.
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