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Jimmy Connors: 12 things I learned from Connors memoir 'The Outsider'

Here are a dozen interesting items from "The Outsider: A Memoir" by tennis great Jimmy Connors.

4. His mentor: Pancho Segura

MIKE GROLL/AP
Jimmy Connors returns a shot to Jim Courier at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the US Open tennis tournament in New York, Sept. 7, 2011.

  • By Ross Atkin Staff writer

Connors credits Pancho Segura, who eventually took over the coaching reins from Jimmy’s mother, as a major factor in his success. Connors had a lot of respect for how Pancho had become a world-class player.

Segura grew up in a poor family of nine children in Ecuador. He worked as a ball boy at the a tennis club where his dad was the caretaker, and despite being small of stature at only 5 ft. 6 in., he went on to win the US Pro Championships from 1950 to 1952 with his signature two-fisted forehand.

Segura met Connors as a teenager in St. Louis while playing a pro event there. Pancho had once tried to woo Gloria Connors in the 1940s, so she took son Jimmy to meet Pancho. He liked the teenager's heart and in assessing his his game saw tremendous potental in two tools in his shotmaking arsenal: a strong first-serve return and a flat backhand that barely cleared the net with pace.

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Mark Sappenfield
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