Wimbledon is where both high and low points occurred in Connors’s career. One of the highest points was when he and girlfriend and fiancée-to-be Chris Evert both won singles titles there in 1974, when the British press dubbed their relationship the “Love Double.” In dismantling Ken Rosewall in the final he said he reached a state of “tennis nirvana.” Another high-water mark came in 1982, during his only other Wimbledon championship, when he beat John McEnroe in a dramatic five-setter that proved he’d come all the way back from a prolonged slump.
The low points at Wimbledon came when he lost a four-set final to Arthur Ashe in 1975 and when he was booed even before his first match on Centre Court began in 1977. That year marked the tournament’s centennial and Connors was a no-show at the opening-day parade in which 41 surviving champions were slated to receive a medal from the Duke of Kent. His absence was not meant as a personal slight to royalty. What the crowd didn’t know, Connors says, is that the reason he failed to appear was that he needed to tend to an ailing thumb that threatened his ability to play at all.
