Quotes from Jimmy Connors

No, like I said, my dad was never really part of the tennis. His involvement around what I did with the tennis and with my mom and my grandparents was really not a part of my life.

Playing in front of 25,000 people and millions more on television, and performing and doing what I worked so hard to try to accomplish was, in my opinion, the ultimate. Do I miss it? Of course I do.

New Yorkers love it when you spill your guts out there. Spill your guts at Wimbledon and they make you stop and clean it up.

From where we lived, to practise in St Louis was an hour-and-a-half drive each way, so that took a lot of the time. So really, our lives just took different paths.

I don't go out there to love my enemy. I go out there to squash him.

You have to remember that I played longer than anybody else on the main tour; I played until I was 40, and then played another six years or so on the seniors tour.

I always insist on my jeans being ironed. Is that a problem?

People don't seem to understand that it's a damn war out there.

I am not looking to be understood or liked. Like me or not, I don't care. I am an outsider, that is the way I was brought up.

I was raised by two women, and that laid the groundwork for the way I treat 'em: with the utmost respect and admiration.

Equality? They ought to play the women's final on opening day. Everybody knows who's going to be in it.

Every time I went out there I performed the best that I could and it was time to step back and clear my mind.

What works for the person you're imitating may not work for you.

Tennis was never work for me, tennis was fun. And the tougher the battle and the longer the match, the more fun I had.

Use it or lose it.

Rather than viewing a brief relapse back to inactivity as a failure, treat it as a challenge and try to get back on track as soon as possible.

Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you're too damned old to do anything about it.

The trouble with experience is that by the time you have it you are too old to take advantage of it.