Jimmy Connors: Today's Rivalries are Soft! LOL...

Outbeyond

Legend
Leave it to the ever-pugnacious Connors. In the olden days, men were men! He and McEnroe - now, hell, THERE'S some REAL tennis!!!:twisted:

I do laugh, as I'm admittedly old enough to have witnessed - in all its hilarity -the nasty-ass tempers on court and tennis balls hit with a seeming intent to kill...

"Today’s rivalries can be soft. As I look back, there was so much more that went into it than [playing] tennis," Connors said in a conference call to promote World TeamTennis. "It was like the Los Angeles Lakers against the Boston Celtics. Tennis was the stage, but tennis was almost secondary. Our rivalry was true, deep. I would have played him on crutches! There was nothing quiet about it. I wasn’t afraid to let him know [how I felt] and he wasn’t afraid to let me know."

McEnroe added: "Today, the players are too professional [toward each other]. They [like each other] too much."

In a way, I wonder if it's American-bred. We've got Serena swearing off some poor lineswoman, Agassi mocking Sampras as a cheapskate in front of millions on TV and a smouldering Sampras aiming a screaming return right smack back at Agassi's face, lol...
 
I think they are too PR'd. No real hatreds except Djokovic-Federer (though that one seems a bit one-sided hate) Nadal-Soderling, and Nadal-Berdych, and those are played down
 

heftylefty

Hall of Fame
It was Connor and McEnroe that brought tennis the "hate". Before they bursted on the scene, guys liked each other. They travelled together. They would beat the crap out of each other, then have a beer afterward.

I have commented about this book more than a couple of times, but Ashe's "Portrait in Motion" is a great read. Wonderful insight on the beginning of Open Tennis.
 
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Other than Federer - Djokovic, Nadal - Berdych and Soderling - Del Potro I can't think of any known animosities between tennis players at the top of the game right now.

Sure there's some cold and strictly professional ones like Fed - Murray, Roddick - a bunch of other guys but other than that it's pretty normal guy to guy everyday thing.

Borg and McEnroe were pretty professional towards each other too.

Connors was known to being a bit of a dick-head so of course he was gonna have a rivalry, especially with one of his own.

Edberg, Wilander, Lendl were all guys that quietly went about their business.
 

Mustard

Bionic Poster
Lleyton Hewitt in his heyday was like Connors on the court in terms of chipping away at his opponents with his attitude and determination. He's definitely cooled off since he's gotten injuries, though. Connors' fire was never tamed, even when he slipped down the rankings due to his age. The amount of non-stop fire Connors had inside him, year after year after year, was incredible.
 

Mustard

Bionic Poster
Agreed. You get pegged as either a classless and unsportsmanlike jerk or soft PC robot. These guys can't win with the press.

Connors wouldn't give a damn about the press. It didn't bother him in his time, and it wouldn't bother him now.
 

TonyB

Hall of Fame
In a way, I wonder if it's American-bred. We've got Serena swearing off some poor lineswoman, Agassi mocking Sampras as a cheapskate in front of millions on TV and a smouldering Sampras aiming a screaming return right smack back at Agassi's face, lol...


Sampras hit a serve at Agassi, not a return.


Besides, I think Connors has a point here. Rivalries back then were deeply ingrained. Players actually hated each other. Nowadays, everyone is too politically correct and friendly that they can't develop that hatred and true rivalries can't gain any traction.

This isn't a commentary on the quality of today's tennis vs. back then. It's just that the players don't have the same mental disposition towards their opponents as they did 30-40 years ago. There are no players like Connors, McEnroe, Nastase, etc. nowadays. Everyone is just so professional and friendly. So be it.
 

pc1

G.O.A.T.
It was Connor and McEnroe that brought tennis the "hate". Before they bursted on the scene, guys liked each other. They travelled together. They would beat the crap out of each other, then have a beer afterward.

I have commented about this book more than a couple of times, but Ashe's "Portrait in Motion" is a great read. Wonderful insight on the beginning of Open Tennis.

Maybe some players would have a beer with each other before Connors and McEnroe but not all of them.

Pancho Gonzalez was scary apparently to play but I've read that he may be scarier in the locker after the match if he lost. I've read stories about him going up into the stands after hecklers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0gJzm_EQY
 
D

Deleted member 3771

Guest
Hewitt and Chela had a hate for eachother for a while after Chela spat towards him during a match.

The Hewitt v Chela Incident
Video(3rd on the list)
article


Pat Cash absolutely hated Lendl, especially after Lendl broke his new shoes. Here is the story from his biography(good book):

Pat Cash, Ivan Lendl and the 'Shoebreaker' incident.

Arrogance has always been Ivan Lendl's style, and amazingly for a Czech guy
who went to live in the United States and actually took on American
citizenship, Lendl was unquestionably a racist.
Around the mid- to late 1980's we had quite a few black players on the tour.
Arthur Ashe had long since retired, but from America there were Chip Hooper,
Lloyd Bourne, Rodney Harmon, Todd Nelson and Bryan Shelton. Of course there
was also Yannick Noah, and from Nigeria, though he was educated in Texas,
there was Nduka Duke Odizor, a legendary cheat but off court a lovely guy.
Lendl would say the most offensive things, and didn't care if any of them
were within earshot. Sitting in the locker room or players restaurants, he
used to make the cruellest racial jokes, all with not the faintest sense of
remorse.

Homosexuals were another brunt of his jokes. For instance, there was an
Australian guy who once worked for the ATP and is now a journalist; I'm not
100 per cent sure whether he was gay or not, but if he was, it certainly
wasn't any of my business, or indeed Ivan Lendl's. Yet day in, day out, this
poor bloke used to take a fearful hammering from Lendl's idea of humour.
What could he say back? If he had told the world number one to **** off,
then he would have lost his job.

But the day Lendl decided to have a joke at my expense was the day he made a
big mistake. Not only did he run into somebody who didn't give a damn about
his reputation or his ranking, he also earned himself a fierce enemy who
would take great delight in getting even with him at a place that really
mattered a few years later. As I recall, the incident happened early in my
career, when I was only just 18 years old, and fresh from the junior world
number one, in terms of the full tour I was still very much a new kid on the
block.

Lendl had taken over the world number one spot a couple of months earlier
and quite rightly thought of himself as a big star. Nevertheless I was
feeling kind of special as well. I had just signed a deal to wear tennis
shoes made by the Italian firm Diadora, and had been given a very unique
gift. One of my great sporting heroes of the time was the legendary 400m
hurdler Edwin Moses, who was another, but much more celebrated, Diadora
client. In honour of Moses, the company had made him some special Crimson
red leather jogging shoes. Nowadays there are all different types of
coloured athletic footwear, such as Michael Johnson's golden spikes and
David Beckham's silver soccer boots. Back then, however, red leather jogging
shoes were unheard of, and to make their new signing feel wanted, Diadora
had presented me with a pair.

They were my pride and joy. I loved them, and one afternoon I was sitting on
a bench in the Monte Carlo Country Club locker room talking to Paul McNamee.
I had already lost in the qualifying rounds of the tournament but was
hanging around because Monte Carlo in the European spring is not an
unpleasant place to spend a few days training. The actual setting of the
tennis courts is one of the most beautiful in the world. They are terraced,
climbing above the clear blue Mediterranean, and if you look across the bay
there is the designer Karl Lagefeld's villa standing on the headland.

I was minding my own business when in walked Lendl, and he instantly took a
huge amusement in the red shoes on my feet. He bent down, pulled the laces
and ripped the shoes apart. There was no other way to describe it, he
totally destroyed the things, and the little plastic bits that held the
laces in place were pinging all over the locker room.
Lendl thought it was absolutely hillarious. Like a great big bully at
school, he was having a good time at the expense of one of the younger kids.
But he didn't realise that this new boy wasn't going to take any of his
Sh&t, and I absolutely flew at him in a fearful rage, and if Paul McNamee
hadn't intervened very smartly, who is to say what would have happened.
Never mind the red shoes, for me the red mist had come down, and I wanted to
kill the world number one.

Macca had his arms around my chest pinning me back, but I was still shouting
at Lendl, yelling what a despicable Bas$$$d he was, and how I would punch
his lights out once I got the chance. All through it, Lendl was looking at
me with the expression that suggested, you cannot do this to me because I am
the number one. He really did think he could do anything he wanted. There
were a few players in the locker room who just missed the incident, and
several of them have since told me that they truly wished I had given Lendl
a really good hiding. From that day on I disliked the guy intensely, and
always referred to him as Mr Shoebreaker.

He was always so conceited, so superior and always used to put people down;
he would regularly berate me about my game, and say I possessed so many
technical and fundamental faults. To me, he was too unfunny for words, and I
always wanted to make him really suffer. That was why I enjoyed beating him
at Wimbledon so much. It was the one major title he never won, but craved so
much.
 

NamRanger

G.O.A.T.
Leave it to the ever-pugnacious Connors. In the olden days, men were men! He and McEnroe - now, hell, THERE'S some REAL tennis!!!:twisted:

I do laugh, as I'm admittedly old enough to have witnessed - in all its hilarity -the nasty-ass tempers on court and tennis balls hit with a seeming intent to kill...





In a way, I wonder if it's American-bred. We've got Serena swearing off some poor lineswoman, Agassi mocking Sampras as a cheapskate in front of millions on TV and a smouldering Sampras aiming a screaming return right smack back at Agassi's face, lol...



Yeah I'm sure Marcelos Rios and Nasty Nastase pissed a ton of people because they were American-Bred. Same with that Lendl guy too (Lendl as good as he was, was not very likable).
 

RCizzle65

Hall of Fame
I don't think Federer and Djokovic hate each other....what's the deal with Soderling and Del Potro? (Jeez this sounds like a gossip site now, lmao)
 

namelessone

Legend
Yeah I'm sure Marcelos Rios and Nasty Nastase pissed a ton of people because they were American-Bred. Same with that Lendl guy too (Lendl as good as he was, was not very likable).

You think it's a coincidence that Connors and Nastase were best buddies on tour at the time? :)

I like Nasty very much, he is my countryman and a legend of tennis, but there's no denying that he was an a-hole many times. He was both entertaining and annoying.

Anyway, it's funny to see what Connors says about soft rivalries.

McEnroe endlessly whining on court,arguing with umps and Connors calling umps abortions. Yup, real men :)

Look at how many people put Roddick down when he badmouths an umpire and Andy doesn't even come close to McEnroe.

To me, it's good that tennis has gotten more professional. It's fine if you wanna kill eachother on court(it's expected) but bad blood off court and behaving in a rude manner to others? These dudes should realize that they are hitting a freaking ball over a net for a living and be appreciative of that. They should be chillaxed all the time outside of the court, no matter what. They are the lucky ones.

I think today's players realize that it's not worth it. Even if you do dislike someone, it gets blown way way out of proportion by the media. Nadal and Soderling are still asked about their 2007 WB "thing" 4 F**KING YEARS later(and if they like eachother) and that's NOTHING compared to what guys from the 70's and 80's did on court. Or look at that whole Roddick-Djokovic thing.
 

NamRanger

G.O.A.T.
You think it's a coincidence that Connors and Nastase were best buddies on tour at the time? :)

I like Nasty very much, he is my countryman and a legend of tennis, but there's no denying that he was an a-hole many times. He was both entertaining and annoying.

Anyway, it's funny to see what Connors says about soft rivalries.

McEnroe endlessly whining on court,arguing with umps and Connors calling umps abortions. Yup, real men :)

Look at how many people put Roddick down when he badmouths an umpire and Andy doesn't even come close to McEnroe.

To me, it's good that tennis has gotten more professional. It's fine if you wanna kill eachother on court(it's expected) but bad blood off court and behaving in a rude manner to others? These dudes should realize that they are hitting a freaking ball over a net for a living and be appreciative of that. They should be chillaxed all the time outside of the court, no matter what. They are the lucky ones.

I think today's players realize that it's not worth it. Even if you do dislike someone, it gets blown way way out of proportion by the media. Nadal and Soderling are still asked about their 2007 WB "thing" 4 F**KING YEARS later(and if they like eachother) and that's NOTHING compared to what guys from the 70's and 80's did on court. Or look at that whole Roddick-Djokovic thing.


Nastase was so great because he was both a complete jerk and an amazing tennis player. By jerk I mean not like whining little jerk, I mean he was just a complete straight up a-hole at times.
 

rafan

Hall of Fame
The only cool I can detect on this tour is the Soderling/Nadal relationship. Having said that the good relationship between the players has not diminished the playing one bit. In fact it is more like a battle than ever. Rafa for instance has turned the tournaments into something that resembles what used to go on in ancient Rome in the coliseum's. In fact the Federer Nadal final at Wimbledon was surely the finest ever seen three years ago
 

CMM

Legend
Other than Federer - Djokovic, Nadal - Berdych and Soderling - Del Potro I can't think of any known animosities between tennis players at the top of the game right now.
Nadal and Berdych get along well. It's been almost 5 years since that Madrid match. People should get over it. In fact, Berdych said last year that he voted for Rafa to get the SE Sportsmanship Award.
 

big ted

Legend
theres so much money in the game and the rules are so different now, players simply cant get away with what they used to do on and off the court.
 

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
Nasty, Connors, McEnroe, Muster are all the rage and added color and got people interest in tennis. In the U.S. tennis has been at the bottom for a while know in terms of interest in it. China has emerge as a new base for tennis.
 

zagor

Bionic Poster
IMO Connors is right,the guys today are so PC that it all comes down to at best slight indirect jabs but nothing in your face,it's boring.
 

BULLZ1LLA

Banned
Hewitt and Chela had a hate for eachother for a while after Chela spat towards him during a match.

The Hewitt v Chela Incident
Video(3rd on the list)
article


Pat Cash absolutely hated Lendl, especially after Lendl broke his new shoes. Here is the story from his biography(good book):

Pat Cash, Ivan Lendl and the 'Shoebreaker' incident.

Arrogance has always been Ivan Lendl's style, and amazingly for a Czech guy
who went to live in the United States and actually took on American
citizenship, Lendl was unquestionably a racist.
Around the mid- to late 1980's we had quite a few black players on the tour.
Arthur Ashe had long since retired, but from America there were Chip Hooper,
Lloyd Bourne, Rodney Harmon, Todd Nelson and Bryan Shelton. Of course there
was also Yannick Noah, and from Nigeria, though he was educated in Texas,
there was Nduka Duke Odizor, a legendary cheat but off court a lovely guy.
Lendl would say the most offensive things, and didn't care if any of them
were within earshot. Sitting in the locker room or players restaurants, he
used to make the cruellest racial jokes, all with not the faintest sense of
remorse.

Homosexuals were another brunt of his jokes. For instance, there was an
Australian guy who once worked for the ATP and is now a journalist; I'm not
100 per cent sure whether he was gay or not, but if he was, it certainly
wasn't any of my business, or indeed Ivan Lendl's. Yet day in, day out, this
poor bloke used to take a fearful hammering from Lendl's idea of humour.
What could he say back? If he had told the world number one to **** off,
then he would have lost his job.

But the day Lendl decided to have a joke at my expense was the day he made a
big mistake. Not only did he run into somebody who didn't give a damn about
his reputation or his ranking, he also earned himself a fierce enemy who
would take great delight in getting even with him at a place that really
mattered a few years later. As I recall, the incident happened early in my
career, when I was only just 18 years old, and fresh from the junior world
number one, in terms of the full tour I was still very much a new kid on the
block.

Lendl had taken over the world number one spot a couple of months earlier
and quite rightly thought of himself as a big star. Nevertheless I was
feeling kind of special as well. I had just signed a deal to wear tennis
shoes made by the Italian firm Diadora, and had been given a very unique
gift. One of my great sporting heroes of the time was the legendary 400m
hurdler Edwin Moses, who was another, but much more celebrated, Diadora
client. In honour of Moses, the company had made him some special Crimson
red leather jogging shoes. Nowadays there are all different types of
coloured athletic footwear, such as Michael Johnson's golden spikes and
David Beckham's silver soccer boots. Back then, however, red leather jogging
shoes were unheard of, and to make their new signing feel wanted, Diadora
had presented me with a pair.

They were my pride and joy. I loved them, and one afternoon I was sitting on
a bench in the Monte Carlo Country Club locker room talking to Paul McNamee.
I had already lost in the qualifying rounds of the tournament but was
hanging around because Monte Carlo in the European spring is not an
unpleasant place to spend a few days training. The actual setting of the
tennis courts is one of the most beautiful in the world. They are terraced,
climbing above the clear blue Mediterranean, and if you look across the bay
there is the designer Karl Lagefeld's villa standing on the headland.

I was minding my own business when in walked Lendl, and he instantly took a
huge amusement in the red shoes on my feet. He bent down, pulled the laces
and ripped the shoes apart. There was no other way to describe it, he
totally destroyed the things, and the little plastic bits that held the
laces in place were pinging all over the locker room.
Lendl thought it was absolutely hillarious. Like a great big bully at
school, he was having a good time at the expense of one of the younger kids.
But he didn't realise that this new boy wasn't going to take any of his
Sh&t, and I absolutely flew at him in a fearful rage, and if Paul McNamee
hadn't intervened very smartly, who is to say what would have happened.
Never mind the red shoes, for me the red mist had come down, and I wanted to
kill the world number one.

Macca had his arms around my chest pinning me back, but I was still shouting
at Lendl, yelling what a despicable Bas$$$d he was, and how I would punch
his lights out once I got the chance. All through it, Lendl was looking at
me with the expression that suggested, you cannot do this to me because I am
the number one. He really did think he could do anything he wanted. There
were a few players in the locker room who just missed the incident, and
several of them have since told me that they truly wished I had given Lendl
a really good hiding. From that day on I disliked the guy intensely, and
always referred to him as Mr Shoebreaker.

He was always so conceited, so superior and always used to put people down;
he would regularly berate me about my game, and say I possessed so many
technical and fundamental faults. To me, he was too unfunny for words, and I
always wanted to make him really suffer. That was why I enjoyed beating him
at Wimbledon so much. It was the one major title he never won, but craved so
much.

(That is awesome, Pat Cash was the reason why Lendl didn't win the Career Grand Slam. Definitely makes up for the shoes, hardcore)
 

roysid

Hall of Fame
well they were showing highlights of wimbledon of a match where
- john mcenroe was arguing like hell.
- jimmy connors at the other side was joking with a spectator saying like "see this jackass".
- and during changeover, connors warned mcenroe with a pointed finger.
 
Soderling - Del Potro Estoril 2011 was just downright hilarious.

It was a complete ****fest.

Soderling started fist pumping (the ridiculous kind) in Del Potro face after every point won while Del Potro was cursing in Spanish and eyeballing him the whole time across the net.

That whole match I think Soderling was giving him the look and raising his fist way up and holding it there for quite a few seconds clearly to **** the other guy off.

DelPo was just swinging his racket violently in air whenever he was making a small mistake.

It was damn hilarious. Connors and Mac would've been proud I tell you.
 

cknobman

Legend
I kinda would like to see someone start some ****.

Since Fed's on the backend of his career and isnt winning tons of titles anymore maybe he should be the one.

Against Djoker maybe he could throw in a "Where is that loudmouth b!tch of a mother you have?"

Against Nadal during Nadals service maybe he could throw in across the court a "Stop picking your @ss and serve the ball!!!"
 

surfvland

Semi-Pro
Yes, today's game is boring compared to the circus that used to take place on the court. The fact that today's tennis is turbo charged is the only redeeming quality.
 

iMpro

New User
Connors was a whining scumbag.

He was arrogant too. Who cares about what he thinks? The main difference is that players these days have a little more class than they did, with a few exceptions. If he calls that "soft", too bad.
 
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