Jimmy Connors

James Scott "Jimmy" Connors is a former world champion American tennis player. He is considered to be one of the best male tennis players of all time. Connors kept the No. 1 ranking position in tennis for a record 268 weeks. 160 of these were consecutive weeks. He won the Grand Slam singles title eight times and the doubles title two times. Connors has accomplished something that no other male tennis player has. He has won U.S. Open Championships on all surfaces; grass, hard and clay courts.
He was inducted to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984.

Connors even continued to play tennis as he got older. In 1982, when he was 30 years old, he defeated John McEnroe at Wimbledon. McEnroe was one of the world's top players then and Connors came back to defeat him. This was eight years after he'd won Wimbledon the first time.

After that, he beat tennis star Ivan Lendl in the U.S. Open final to capture the World No. 1 position from him. In 1983, he beat Lendl again in the U.S. Open final. In 1984, he played McEnroe in Wimbledon again but lost to him. He continued to play in tennis tournaments during the 80's and in 1991 he attempted to play in the French Open but a bad back forced him to retire.

Today he is a Wimbledon commenter for BBC-TV. He will also be an analyst for the Tennis Channel in 2009 during the U.S. Open. Connors married Patti McGuire in 1980 and they have two children. Their family resides in Santa Barbara, California.