Peak years Connors at the 1978 ABN Tennis Tournament holding his Wilson T2000 steel racketĬonnors won eight Grand Slam singles championships: five US Opens, two Wimbledons, and one Australian Open. Pro Singles, his first significant title, defeating Arthur Ashe in a five-set final, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4, 3–6, 6–2. However, Connors played in other tournaments and won the 1973 U.S. Connors was acquiring a reputation as a maverick in 1972 when he refused to join the newly formed Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the union that was embraced by most male professional players, in order to play in and dominate a series of smaller tournaments organized by Bill Riordan, his manager. He turned professional in 1972 and won his first tournament, the Jacksonville Open. In 1971, Connors won the NCAA singles title as a Freshman while attending UCLA and attained All-American status. In 1970, Connors recorded his first victory in the first round of the Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles, defeating Roy Emerson. Phillip's grade school.Ĭonnors won the Junior Orange Bowl in both the 12- and the 14-year categories, and is one of only nine tennis players to win the Junior Orange Bowl championship twice in its 70-year history. ![]() He and his brother, John "Johnny" Connors, attended St. Connors's mother, Gloria, took him to Southern California to be coached by Pancho Segura, starting at age 16, in 1968. boys' 11-and-under of 1961, when he was nine years old. ![]() During his childhood he was coached and trained by his mother and grandmother. Louis, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. He retired in 1996 at the age of 43.Ĭonnors grew up in East St. In 1982, he won both Wimbledon and the US Open and was ATP Player of the Year and ITF World Champion. Connors finished year end number one in the ATP rankings from 1974 to 1978. In 1974, he became the second man in the Open Era to win three major titles in a calendar year, and was not permitted to participate in the fourth, the French Open. His titles include eight major singles titles (a joint Open Era record five US Opens, two Wimbledons, one Australian Open) and three year-end championships. By virtue of his long and prolific career, Connors still holds three prominent Open Era men's singles records: 109 titles, 1,557 matches played, and 1,274 match wins. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 weeks. James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No.
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