Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors

James Scott "Jimmy" Connors (born September 2, 1952, in East St. Louis, Illinois) is a former World No. 1 tennis player from the United States.

Connors won eight Grand Slam singles titles and two Grand Slam doubles titles with Ilie Năstase. He was also a runner-up seven times in Grand Slam singles, a doubles runner-up with Năstase at the 1973 French Open, and a mixed doubles runner-up with Chris Evert at the 1974 US Open. He held the top ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from July 29, 1974 to August 22, 1977 and an additional eight times during his career for a total of 268 weeks.

In 1974, Connors became the second male in the open era to win three or more Grand Slam singles titles in a calendar year (Rod Laver being the first in 1969 and having been joined since by Mats Wilander, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic). Connors is also the only person to win U.S. Open singles championships on grass, clay, and hard courts.

Connors won a record 109 ATP tournaments, 15 more than Ivan Lendl, and over 30 more than Roger Federer and John McEnroe. His career win-loss record of 1243–277 (81.77%) is third after Björn Borg (82.7%) and Ivan Lendl (81.8%), and he holds the record for total number of wins for a male player.

Connors won three year-end championship titles, including two WCT Finals and one Masters Grand Prix. He also won 17 Championship Series titles (1973–1984). He was the first male player to rank no. 1 for more than 200 weeks in total and the first male player to be no. 1 for more than five years in total. He is the only male player in the open era to win more than 100 singles titles during his career and also holds the record for most major quarterfinals (41) reached. He is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time due to his many records in the game.