Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Friday, September 09, 2022 at 10:24 p.m.
Before Pete Sampras, who joined him with five victories at the US Open, Jimmy Connors – 70 years old for a week – was the first American record holder of titles (in the Open era) during his Internationals. Back to the special bond that unites him to New York.
1974
When Jimmy Connors appeared in the final against Ken Rosewall, the American had his knife between his teeth, and for good reason: winner in Australia and Wimbledon, he had just been deprived of participation in Roland-Garros because of a veto of Philippe Chatrier, the president of the French Federation, at war with the American players, some of whom sometimes favored exhibitions instead of the Parisian tournament.
Jimmy Connors takes his nerves on Rosewall, literally swept away during the most crushing final in history (6-1, 6-0, 6-1) in just 1h18 ‘of play. The Australian did well with his 39 years, which then consecrate him as the oldest finalist at a Grand Slam tournament. It’s also the final grass-court final at the US Open, which is still taking place in Forest Hills pending its upcoming move.
1976
Became in 1974 the first player to win three different Grand Slam tournaments but played on the same surface (since the Australian Open was also held on grass), Jimmy Connors is still a finalist in 1975 for the passage on green clay – called American -, also available at Forrest Hills and which better corresponds to the new television requirements.
He lost in three sets against the Spaniard Manuel Orantes (6-4, 6-3, 6-3) but took revenge the following season against another specialist in the area, and not the least: Björn Borg is in effect his victim in four sets, at the end of a nice fight marked in particular by a formidable tie-break won 11-9 to conclude the third round, turning point of this meeting (6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6 -4). More than ever world No. 1, “Jimbo” gleans his fourth major title.
1978
Again a finalist in 1977 for the last edition held at Forrest Hills, beaten by Guillermo Vilas in four sets (2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-0), it was he who lost a tie this time. pivotal break at the end of the third set and ended up making the punch in front of spectators who invaded the stadium to carry the winner in triumph, while Jimmy Connors was preparing to serve as he was sure of recovering the point on the match point he had seen outside.
But for the fifth time in a row, he will challenge for the title the following season on the occasion of the big finish to Flushing Meadows and its hard courts, just a little further north in Queens (the largest borough in New York, east of the city). As in 1976, when he put an end to a series of three defeats in a row in the finals of the Grand Slam tournaments, he stopped the same sequence by offering himself Björn Borg once again, much more easily than two years earlier ( 6-4, 6-2, 6-2).
1982
Where Jimmy Connors had been able to respond in a marvelous way to Björn Borg, who had inflicted on him two successive defeats in the final at Wimbledon in 1977 then in 1978, the American must then rise from the ashes against a certain John McEnroe, a young local opponent already climbed very high in the early 1980s and which clearly stole the show over the years.
Finally beating his compatriot at Wimbledon, when the latter had blocked his way for several seasons in a row – and particularly at the US Open – as well as Björn Borg, it is against Ivan Lendl that Jimmy Connors finally restarts the machine at New York and at the same time recovers the place of world No. 1, by offering the Czechoslovakian in four sets (6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4). This is his seventh Grand Slam title and his fourth on home soil.
1983
The eighth and last will arrive the following year, in a perfect repetition against the same Ivan Lendl, who manages to grab a set but takes a 6-0 in the last set (6-3, 6-7, 7-5, 6 -0) after a third set again decisive in the scenario. At just 31 years old, he would never reach the final of the US Open again, which did not prevent him from still having some Homeric journeys there until the semi-finals: in 1984 against John McEnroe, in 1985 and 1987 against Ivan Lendl who took his revenge, and even in 1991 in front of Jim Courier when he was 39 years old on the clock.
“The noise was unbelievable, 20,000 people making the noise of 60,000… That’s what tennis has been trying to do from the very beginning, like hockey, baseball, football or basketball: to provoke this kind of of reaction.” Who better to achieve this than Jimmy Connors, still a prophet in his country after almost two decades of career at the highest level?
