T
ime doesn't wait. It didn't wait for Bjorn Borg, who first quit tennis at 26, nor did it for John McEnroe, who never won a Grand Slam after age 25. In 1990, a year before his remarkable US Open run, it did not wait for Jimmy Connors, the Open era leader with 109 singles titles. It was the ideal opportunity, at 38, to walk off the stage. By that time, Connors, with all of his crassness, confrontation and class insecurities, had been replaced by a new generation of younger players.
Andre Agassi, brash but not mean-spirited, and confident, driven players such as Pete Sampras and Jim Courier were the future of the new game. The Connors era, both in attitude and in the decline of the man himself, was seemingly over.
The magic Connors would produce a year later had supposedly already happened. Four years earlier at Wimbledon, Connors, at 34, beat Mikael Pernfors of Sweden. Yet, Connors wasn't done. Not even close.
(Editor's note: Jimmy Connors' quotes are from the 30-for-30 documentary \"This is What They Want.\")
On His Own Terms
![](\"http://a.espncdn.com/prod/styles/pagetype/otl/20160824_connors/img/connors.png\")
Jimmy Connors (1991 US Open semifinalist): \"I didn't want to be told to walk away.\"
![](\"http://a.espncdn.com/prod/styles/pagetype/otl/20160824_connors/img/drucker.png\")
Joel Drucker (Longtime tennis writer): \"In 1990, Connors didn't play the US Open [because of a wrist injury], but he was there. He was on the grounds like he was some sort of exiled CEO, and we left the US Open that night. We drove back in a cab to Manhattan, and as we were leaving Flushing Meadows, he pointed at the stadium, and he said, 'If ever get back there, that place is gonna rock and roll.' \"
![](\"http://a.espncdn.com/prod/styles/pagetype/otl/20160824_connors/img/lupica.png\")
Mike Lupica: \"Connors is down 6-1, 6-1, 4-1. He gets a break and a hold, and I can't remember who I said this to sitting there at center court, but I said, 'He actually thinks he has a chance.' And so he comes back and wins, and that's the day I ran into Billie Jean [King] outside the locker room, and she said, 'When Borg's 50, he's gonna wake up in the middle of the night, and he's gonna say, 'What if?' What if I didn't leave?' \"
![](\"http://a.espncdn.com/prod/styles/pagetype/otl/20160824_connors/img/bodo.png\")
Peter Bodo (ESPN.com writer): \"I never think about him as a lion in winter, more of a jackal. There was something very feral about Jimmy, about the way he played. He always wanted to sink his teeth into you. You sort of imagine him coming out of a match with blood around his lips. I think the one thing you can never take out of the equation is resentment. He always had resentment building in there, toward the establishment, toward other guys -- if one had a better looking girlfriend or a better car, and he felt other people were getting what he should have gotten. The other guys were getting more credit, more than what they deserved. It meant a great deal to him all the time.\"
Connors' run began when he accepted a wild-card entry into the 1991 US Open. His world ranking entering the tournament was 174.
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