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I don't like the ball," he says. "I don't like that little thing coming back over the net." To keep it away, Connors hits every shot, especially his two-fisted backhand, with jackhammer force, pounding down an opponent with his nonstop attack. Small-bodied, he gets his power from outsize muscular shoulders and a swing calibrated to bang the ball on the rise, a technique first taught him by his mother, Gloria, and later stressed by Pancho Segura, the wily pro who has been Connors' instructor for the past six years. "Never let a ball come to you" is Segura's First Law. Charge the ball, he insists, lean into it and meet it on the rise. That attack tactic maximizes power and control and allows the player to move toward the net after the shot.
"Jimmy is the closest thing we have to a complete player," says Segura. "He can do everything." Most pros agree. Says Marty Riessen: "Jimmy has oodles of talent." While Connors lacks Newcombe's power serve (in fact, Jimmy's serve is the weakest part of his game), he is a master of approach shots, top-spin lobs and overhead smashes. But the keys to his game are his ground strokes, particularly service returns. "When Jimmy gets grooved returning serves, he's really dangerous," says Stan Smith, co-ranked No. 1 with Connors last year. Tennis experts agree that Connors' chances against Newcombe depend on his counter to the Australian's serve.
Like Newcombe, Connors is adept at mixing strokes. "When a guy's playing Jimmy," says Pancho, "he doesn't know what to expect. Jimmy will stay back and play base line, then rush the net. He can lob you or beat you down the alley with a winner. He's impossible to predict." Much of the credit for that unpredictability belongs to Segura, a Clausewitz of subtle shots and stratagems. As a small player who uses a two-handed forehand, Segura is in many ways the perfect teacher for Connors. Before all of Connors' big matches, he and Pancho, currently teaching pro at La Costa, a resort north of San Diego, review the opponent's style and prepare a game plan. "I tell him how to beat these guys," says Segura.
Segura and Connors concentrate on such nuances as playing percentages and angles. "My first instinct is to hit the hell out of the ball," says Connors. "I'm still learning to control that. If you're serving down 30-40, you don't play like it's 40-love. You just try to get the first serve in." On taking advantage of angles, Connors says, "You've got to use the open court. If my opponent and I are both at the base line, I'm going to hit cross court to his backhand, and if he hits back to my forehand, I'll go down the line. If he returns that, my next shot might be a short, top-spin drive back across court. That way I've always got him running."