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"It's me." He has good reason to be pleased with himself: taking the starch out of tennis has proved to be highly profitable. His income this year could reach $ 1 million, with only a quarter of that coming from tournament winnings — at a time when tennis has busted out of its country-club cocoon to become one of the nation's most popular spectator and participant sports with an estimated 34 million players. Jimmy Connors, the hellion of tennis, has become a leader and symbol of the upheaval.
This Saturday he hits the richest pay dirt in tennis history — the battle with Newcombe at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Encouraged by the success of last February's nationally televised winner-take-all match between Connors and Rod Laver (which Jimmy won by a score of 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5), CBS is paying $600,000 for the rights to broadcast live this second "Heavyweight Championship of Tennis." Caesars Palace is adding a purse of $250,000 plus $50,000 for expenses. The sale of foreign broadcast rights should yield another $100,000. The approximate payoff: the winner $400,000, the loser $250,000 and the promoter (Connors' manager Bill Riordan) $300,000.
Though Connors, a lefty, took 14 of the 20 tournaments he played in last year, including Wimbledon and Forest Hills, many fans still consider Newcombe the world's premier player. Newcombe, 30, has won Wimbledon three times (1967, '70, '71) and Forest Hills twice (1967, '73). Moreover, he beat Connors in both of the tournament matches that the two have played, including the tightly contested final of the Australian Open earlier this year.
Newcombe's two victories over Connors came on grass, a fast surface suited to his serve-and-volley power game. The Las Vegas match will be on a slower synthetic surface, but Newcombe seems too strong to be seriously handicapped by a dull court. When he is pent up, Newcombe lets go with the toughest serve in tennis, and no one has a more murderous volley.
He is also a brilliant tactician, capable of the drop shots and lobs that make for a varied pace of play. He expects that hard-soft mix to be a telling weapon against Connors. "This will be a mental battle," Newcombe says. "I won't be offensive all the time. I'll stay back and slow-ball him sometimes and let him make the mistakes."
Connors has his own weapons. At 5 ft. 10 in., 150 lbs., he cannot match the brawn of Newcombe (6 ft., 173 lbs.), but he has the most consistent, well-rounded attack in tennis. His game is built on quickness, conditioning and a savagely total concentration. Blessed with stamina, fast reflexes and a long-distance vision that allows him to read the ball's direction of flight the instant it leaves his opponent's racket, Connors will return shots others cannot reach.