American tennis legend Jimmy Connors delves deeper into his professional bond with another tennis legend, John McEnroe. Now fans know well that the on-court rivalry between these two tennis stalwarts transcended beyond the court. Connors spoke about McEnroe’s bratty personality and debatable statements many times in public. Now after so long, Jimmy Connors looks back at his rivalry with John McEnroe.
Connors also spoke previously about how his matches against McEnroe were different than his other opponents like Nastase and Panatta. He mentioned playing against McEnroe brought him the passion to be the world’s number one. Now after decades, this tennis legend remembers his bond with John McEnroe in retrospection.
Jimmy Connors takes fans on a surprise tour of his relationship with John McEnroe
In a recent podcast, Jimmy Connors’s son Brett Connors asked the legendary tennis player about John Mcenroe’s request to him after 1991 Wimbledon. After losing the tournament, John McEnroe asked Jimmy Connors to coach him on television and he agreed. Brett Connor asked his father about what happened afterward. Connors said in his response- “Nothing. Yeah, anything else you wanna know about that? He was kind of thinning out his career to run that time and 1990 you know coming back.”
Connors pointed out McEnroe’s weak points and said- “Mac gone on sabbaticals you know taken three months off, six months off and then try to come back and kinda go through that you know. Like we’re talking about earlier, that’s hard to do when you know the other guys are forging forward. I always tell that you know especially when I was out, I took a year off. You just cant come and think that these guys are gonna just roll over. These young players they are gonna take their places too.”
Despite the rivalry, Jimmy Connors’s statement expressed his admiration for his colleague John McEnroe. He concluded by saying- “We both ran the other way.” Connors always held a rivalry attitude towards McEnroe. he vocally expressed his feelings about the fellow tennis colleague.
Jimmy Connors revealed his true thoughts while playing against John McEnroe
Connors has been always vocal about John McEnroe. He once said- “I was number one in the United States and he wanted it. I was number one in the world and he wanted it. Then he took it all. And then I wanted to get it all back. I didn’t want to let myself go and say that it was too hard, that he was too young (seven years younger to be exact).
He further added: “Even though Mac and I have faced each other all the time, we look so much alike it’s scary. I’m Irish, he’s Irish, I am left-handed, he is left-handed, I have a bad attitude, he has a bad attitude. I always said I wanted to play against myself, and Mac came close to representing that fantasy.”
Jimmy Connors’s statement about John McEnroe’s wish to coach him afterward explains that he carefully noticed McEnroe’s tennis achievements and playstyles over the years. Despite on-court rivalry, these two shared a great professional bond.
