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Koen Suyk / Anefo, Jimmy Connors 2 (1978), CC BY 4.0
Pruneau, John McEnroe Roland Garros 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0
As one of the true individual head-to-head sports, tennis has always had its share of great rivalries between often very contrasting players, whether it be Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal currently, Pete Sampras vs. Andre Agassi in the 1990s, or Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova in the 1970s and 1980s, etc. One of tennis history’s greatest rivalries featured two American men, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, who were known as much for their volatile and bombastic personalities as they were for their skills with a tennis racquet. Throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s, Connors and McEnroe would sit at or near the pinnacle of men’s tennis, racking up wins, titles, and Grand Slams, as well as fines. More than 30 years after either man was last ranked #1 in the world, the debate still goes on today:
Who was better – Jimmy Connors or John McEnroe?
The Beginning
Tennis has historically been a game dominated by young men (and women); that was certainly the case in the 1970s, when both Connors and McEnroe parlayed junior, amateur, and collegiate success to quickly reach the upper echelons of the men’s professional game.
Already an accomplished junior player (having won the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl in both the 12 and 14-year-old groups), Connors won his first senior-level match at age 18 by beating Roy Emerson, winner of a then-record 12 career Grand Slam titles, at the Pacific Southwest Open in 1970. After enrolling at UCLA, he won the NCAA singles title as a freshman in 1971 and was named an All-American. From there, Connors turned pro in 1972 and achieved immediate success; in 1973, he compiled an 88-15 overall record in singles, reached the quarterfinals of both Wimbledon and the US Open, won 11 of his record 109 career singles titles, and finished the year ranked #3 in the world. Though not remembered as a doubles player, Connors did also play doubles early in his career and reached two Grand Slam doubles finals in 1973 – playing with the surly Romanian Ilie Nastase (who would also be ranked #1 in the world at one point), the duo lost in the French Open finals and won Wimbledon, both in five-setters.
Likewise, after a successful junior career, McEnroe burst onto the scene in 1977 by winning the French Open mixed doubles title as an amateur with Mary Carillo, and then advancing through the Wimbledon qualifiers all the way to the semifinals of the main draw, where he would lose to eventual runner-up Connors in four sets. As a freshman at Stanford in 1978, he led the Cardinal to the NCAA title and also captured the singles title before turning pro and joining the ATP Tour shortly afterwards. In 1978, McEnroe had a 79-19 singles record, winning five titles, reaching the semifinals of the US Open, and finishing the year ranked #4 in the world. Also a prolific doubles player, he and long-time partner Peter Fleming took home eight titles and were runner-up at Wimbledon to finish the year ranked #2.
Career Comparison
Throughout most of the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, Connors and McEnroe were two of the dominant players in men’s tennis, setting a standard for American tennis that would later be continued by the likes of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
1974 marked the beginning of Connors’ peak years – in 21 singles tournaments entered, he made the finals 17 times and won 15 titles, compiling an overall record of 93-4 and finishing the year #1 (the first of five consecutive years he would be year-end #1). Moreover, he won three Grand Slam titles that year (the Australian Open in one of only two times he would compete Down Under, Wimbledon, and the US Open) and finished a perfect 20-0 in Grand Slam matches; from 1974 to 1978, Connors was barred from competing in the French Open due to his association with World Team Tennis (WTT) and it is the only Grand Slam title he never won, with his best result being the semifinals on four occasions.
From 1975 to 1978, Connors would be the #1 men’s player in the world each year, winning at least 65 matches and eight tournaments each year; at one point, he was #1 for 160 straight weeks, a record that stood until 2007, when it was broken by arguably the greatest men’s tennis player ever, Roger Federer (237 weeks). At the Grand Slams, he would make eight more finals over that time span, though finished runner-up six times, including at all three he played in for 1975. However, Connors would win the 1976 and 1978 US Opens, both over Bjorn Borg; an interesting piece of trivia, since the 1974 US Open was played on grass, 1976 on clay, and 1978 on a hard surface (as it is today), he is the only man to ever win the US Open on three different playing surfaces. In addition to his success in singles, Connors would team with Nastase to win the 1975 US Open men’s doubles title for his second and last Grand Slam doubles title.
Post his string of five consecutive year-end #1s, Connors remained an elite player for another decade or so. From 1979 to 1987, he won at least 45 matches each year and added 34 additional titles to his career total, finishing in the top 10 each year (including #2 or #3 for six consecutive years). Of the 26 Grand Slams he competed in during this span, Connors made it to at least the semifinals 19 times and at least the quarterfinals all but three times, a remarkable display of consistency; his best year in the Grand Slams was 1982, when he captured both Wimbledon and the US Open, and briefly held the #1 ranking before finishing #2 (to McEnroe, no less). Connors would win his eighth and final Grand Slam singles title at the 1983 US Open, though continued to make deep runs well into his mid-30s. In fact, one of his most memorable moments came at the 1991 US Open – on his 39th birthday and ranked #174, Connors came back from down in the fifth set to defeat 24-year old fellow American Aaron Krickstein in a match that lasted nearly five hours, making him the oldest man to ever reach the US Open semifinals.
While his career overlapped significantly with Connors’, McEnroe’s peak started roughly five years afterwards. In 1979, McEnroe went 95-14 overall in singles, won 10 titles, finished #3, and won the first of three consecutive US Open singles titles at the age of 20, making him the youngest champion since Pancho Gonzalez in the late 1940s. At the same time, McEnroe would begin a reign of five straight years as #1 in doubles, and would team with Fleming to win both Wimbledon and the US Open in men’s doubles, the first of three times they would win both Grand Slams in a calendar year.
McEnroe first assumed the #1 ranking in singles in 1980, and despite a constant back-and-forth over the title with the likes of Connors, Borg, and Ivan Lendl, he would finish as year-end #1 for four straight years beginning in 1981. That year, he would compile a 76-10 record, win 10 titles again, and take home both the Wimbledon and US Open titles in singles. McEnroe’s best season came in 1984, when he had an incredible 82-3 record (the 96.5% winning percentage is the best in the Open Era) with a career-high 13 titles; at the Grand Slams, he was 20-1, winning both Wimbledon and the US Open again, and making the finals of the French Open before losing to Lendl. Like Connors, McEnroe rarely played in the Australian Open (five appearances in singles) and was not as proficient on clay as he was on grass and hard courts (best result in 10 French Open appearances was the 1984 finals). 1984 also marked the unofficial end of his dominance in doubles, as McEnroe finished #2 and won Wimbledon once again.
After another strong season in 1985, McEnroe took a six-month sabbatical from tennis, citing the competitive pressures. Though he would return to the game and reach as high as #4 in the world in 1989, McEnroe’s heyday was past – the 1984 US Open was his last singles Grand Slam, and the most titles he would win in a season thereafter was three. He did see some further success on the doubles side, winning the 1989 US Open with Mark Woodforde (later of the famous “Woodies” partnership with Todd Woodbridge) and the 1992 Wimbledon title with Michael Stitch.
Over the course of a longer career, Connors outpaces McEnroe in most counting categories for singles, from matches won (1,256 to 881) to titles (109 vs. 77) to weeks at #1/number of year-end #1 rankings (268 to 170 and 5x to 4x, respectively) and also Grand Slam titles (8 to 7). However, their actual winning percentages are almost identical (81.8% to 81.6%) and when you factor in doubles, McEnroe has a significant advantage in every category, thus making the claim for better overall player. Fittingly, the two men would follow each other into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Connors in 1998 and McEnroe in 1999.
Career Statistics
| Jimmy Connors | Player | John McEnroe |
| 23 (1970-1992) | Primary Years | 18 (1976-1994) |
| 1,256-279 (81.8%) | Singles W-L Record | 881-198 (81.6%) |
| 109 | Singles Titles | 77 |
| 268 | Weeks at #1 | 170 |
| 5x | Year-End #1 | 4x |
| 16 | Doubles Titles | 78 |
| 10x (8x / 2x / -) | Grand Slam Titles (Singles / Doubles / Mixed) | 17x (7x / 9x / 1x) |
| 1x (1x / – / -) | Australian Open Titles | 0 (- / – / -) |
| 0 (- / – / -) | French Open Titles | 1x (- / – / 1x) |
| 3x (2x / 1x / -) | Wimbledon Titles | 8x (3x / 5x / -) |
| 6x (5x / 1x / -) | US Open Titles | 8x (4x / 4x / -) |
| 1998 | Hall of Fame Induction | 1999 |
Source: Wikipedia.org, International Tennis Hall of Fame, ATP Tour
From a head-to-head perspective, Connors and McEnroe played each other in singles 34 times over the course of their illustrious careers between 1977 and 1991. While Connors won six of the first seven matchups through the late 1970s, the tide began to turn in the 1980s and McEnroe closed out the rivalry by winning 12 of the last 14 matchups, ultimately finishing with a 20-14 career record vs. Connors. Moreover, they met nine times in Grand Slams tournaments, all in the semifinals or later, with McEnroe prevailing 6-3. This included meeting twice in Grand Slam finals, with each man taking home the trophy once – in the 1982 Wimbledon finals, Connors won a hard-fought five-setter 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4; two years later, McEnroe would get revenge in the 1984 Wimbledon finals with an easy straight sets victory 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.
In addition to captivating crowds with their play, Connors and McEnroe were both controversial figures known for their on-court antics and unruly behavior. As mentioned, Connors was banned from the French Open for many years for his association with WTT, but also feuded with umpires, linesmen, opponents, Davis Cup officials, etc. the list goes on and on, earning him the nickname the “Brash Basher of Belleville” from famed commentator Bud Collins. McEnroe’s fiery temper also frequently manifested itself on-court, particularly at Wimbledon – he was booed upon entering Centre Court for the 1980 finals after arguing with officials in his semifinal match vs. Connors, and later made famous the phrase “You cannot be serious” in another heated exchange with umpire Edward James. Some fans, particular of the younger generation, may even remember Connors and McEnroe more for their behavior than for their play.
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; though both players had long and illustrious careers overall, Connors and McEnroe each had a definable period of peak brilliance in the 1970s and 1980s. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Jimmy Connors | Player | John McEnroe |
| 1973-1982 | Decade of Dominance | 1978-1987 |
| 778-101 (88.5%) | Singles W-L Record | 677-110 (86.0%) |
| 90 | Singles Titles | 70 |
| 259 | Weeks at #1 | 170 |
| 5x | Year-End #1 | 4x |
| 9x (7x / 2x / -) | Grand Slam Titles (Singles / Doubles / Mixed) | 14x (7x / 7x / -) |
| 1x (1x / – / -) | Australian Open Titles | 0 (- / – / -) |
| 0 (- / – / -) | French Open Titles | 0 (- / – / -) |
| 3x (2x / 1x / -) | Wimbledon Titles | 7x (3x / 4x / -) |
| 5x (4x / 1x / -) | US Open Titles | 7x (4x / 3x / -) |
Source: Wikipedia.org, International Tennis Hall of Fame, ATP Tour
In looking at their respective decades of dominance, Connors still holds the edge in singles matches won, singles titles, and weeks at #1/year-end #1 rankings, though both men won seven Grand Slams singles titles, including four US Opens, during these spans. Similarly, McEnroe remains the dominant doubles player and holds the overall edge in Grand Slam titles due to this dual prowess.
My Thoughts
Despite their similarities (American, #1 player, feisty personality, etc.), Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe had very different styles of play – Connors was an aggressive baseliner, whereas McEnroe was an attacking serve-and-volley player; if I had to characterize them as dog breeds, Connors would be a pugnacious bulldog vs. McEnroe being a graceful, yet powerful greyhound. Connors clearly had a long and successful career, and was the epitome of consistency, as evidenced by his records for singles matches played, singles matches won, and career singles titles. While McEnroe’s star may have shined for a briefer period of time, it arguably shone brighter at its zenith (e.g. 1984); moreover, McEnroe won the head-to-head matchup vs. Connors (albeit with the benefit of youth on his side) and was by far the superior doubles player (and perhaps the greatest dual-threat singles/doubles player in men’s tennis history).
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
John McEnroe
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
- The Belt: The Immovable Objects Meets the Unstoppable Force (Connors vs. McEnroe) – Cracked Racquets
More Good Stuff
- Watch: Get tickets to see the US Open or other major tennis tournaments
- Wear: Buy sports apparel
- Collect: Buy unique sports memorabilia for Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, or your favorite tennis player(s)
- Play: Show off your tennis knowledge by playing daily fantasy tennis
- Build: Start your own sports website/blog
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