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He held the top ranking for 160 consecutive weeks from July 29, 1974, to August 22, 1977 (record at that time), and an additional eight times during his career (a total of 268 weeks). He won eight Grand Slam singles titles and two Grand Slam doubles titles with Ilie Năstase and was the mixed doubles runner-up with Chris Evert at the 1974 US Open. Connors also won three year-end championship titles including two WCT Finals and one Masters Grand Prix. In addition he won 18 Championship Series titles (1973 � 1984). He is a former coach of Andy Roddick, the winner of the 2003 US Open. Connors himself was coached by Pancho Segura, since age 16, in 1968. Although Connors never won the French Open, his victory at the 1976 US Open came during the brief period (1975 � 77) when that tournament was held on clay courts. Connors is, therefore, one of only five men (Mats Wilander, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are the others) to have won a Grand Slam singles title on all surfaces. He is cited to be one of the greatest male tennis players of all time. Connors also won the US Open singles championship itself on grass courts, hard courts, and clay courts, the only man to accomplish that trio of wins. Connors is the first male player to rank No. 1 for more than 200 weeks in total and the first male player to be No. 1 for more than 5 years (268 weeks) in total. He is the only male player to win more than 100 singles titles during his career. He is the only male player to reach 31 Grand Slam semifinals and 41 Grand Slam quarterfinals in his career. |