A collection of quotes and thoughts by Jimmy Connors on failure, challenge, treat, win, sayings, hate, good, time, past, experience, fire, battle, fun, smile, war and work.
Jimmy Connors is a retired American world number one tennis player. He is considered as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Three prominent ‘Open Era men’s single records’ are till date held by him by the virtue of his prolific and long career. He was also known for his fiery competitiveness, uncouth behaviour and astringent relationships. For these reasons he has also been compared to Pete Rose, a renowned basketball player and Connors takes this analogy with pride. We have rounded some iconic, famous and popular quotes and sayings by the eminent player on problem, family, life, sports, tennis, winning, lose, crowd, story, path, baseball, football, mom, drive, respect, woman etc which have been excerpted from his interviews, work, thoughts, public utterances and life. Let us zoom through the quotable quotes and thoughts by Jimmy Connors that he shared on court and off it.
Playing in front of 25,000 people and millions more on television, and performing and doing what I worked so hard to try to accomplish was, in my opinion, the ultimate. Do I miss it? Of course I do.
Jimmy Connors
With everything else that would swirl around me when I got involved in it, tennis was my main concern.
Back in East St. Louis, tennis wasn't the real thing. If you weren't playing baseball, basketball, football, you were kind of on the outside.
Jimmy Connors
No, like I said, my dad was never really part of the tennis. His involvement around what I did with the tennis and with my mom and my grandparents was really not a part of my life.
From where we lived, to practise in St Louis was an hour-and-a-half drive each way, so that took a lot of the time. So really, our lives just took different paths.
You have to remember that I played longer than anybody else on the main tour; I played until I was 40, and then played another six years or so on the seniors tour.
I've been kicked in the teeth more times in tennis than the law ought to allow.
Jimmy Connors
I always insist on my jeans being ironed. Is that a problem?
Jimmy Connors
Tennis was never work for me, tennis was fun. And the tougher the battle and the longer the match, the more fun I had.
Jimmy Connors
I would watch Gonzalez play and he mesmerized you. It would be like looking into the flame of a fire. You know you couldn't take your eyes off him because you never knew what he would do next.
Jimmy Connors
Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you're too damned old to do anything about it.
Rather than viewing a brief relapse back to inactivity as a failure, treat it as a challenge and try to get back on track as soon as possible.
Jimmy Connors
I think my greatest victory was every time I walked out there, I gave it everything I had. I left everything out there. That's what I'm most proud of. I can't go win Wimbledon anymore, so if what I've done in the past is not good enough, let it go. Because I'm certainly not sitting around thinking about it.
Bjorn was a different breed, I threw my best material at him, but he would never smile, but that added to the charm when he played me and Mac. We were going nuts and losing our mind and he was sitting back like he was on a Sunday stroll.
Jimmy Connors
Nothing is like being out there and playing and performing and winning - nothing. But to have an interest in the player? The nerves and everything that goes with it? Seeing what he's learned and how he's done it? That's the second best thing to playing. I think.
It was okay for Wayne Gretzky's dad, for instance, to give him a hockey stick, or Joe Montana's dad to give him a football, or Larry Bird's dad to give him a basketball, but it wasn't okay for Gloria Connors to give her son a tennis racquet.
Jimmy Connors
Tennis was always there for me, which was lucky. I would go play baseball, basketball, football, hang with my brother, do whatever, and at the end of the day I'd come back and say, 'Hey, Mom, would you hit 15 minutes worth of balls with me?'
