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Connors tops these tactics and skills with a pitiless competitive instinct. "Jimmy was taught to be a tiger on the court," says his tigress mother. "When he was young, if I had a shot I could hit down his throat, I did. And I'd say, 'See, Jimmy, even your mother will do that to you.' " Connors learned well. "No one's ever given me anything on the court," he says. "Maybe that's one reason I prefer singles. It's just me and you. When I win, I don't have to congratulate anyone. When I lose, I don't have to blame anyone."
In a match, Jimmy can become a man possessed. He yells at himself, flaunts insults and makes gestures at hecklers. Sometimes he will slow play by bouncing the ball ten or twelve times before he serves. Last year he even leaped into the stands to go after a boisterous fan. What the public does not see or hear can be just as livid. As spectators in Las Vegas gave Rod Laver a standing ovation before their February match, Connors was standing next to Segura, his mother and Evert, howling back obscenity after obscenity.
Why does he do it? "I play tennis for two reasons," says Connors. "I like to hit balls, and I like to entertain. My behavior gets people involved, and I think that's what the game needs." As the bad guy, Connors believes that "people pay to see me get beaten."
Not all of the outbursts are calculated. "He's two completely different people on and off the court," says Evert. "The madder he gets, the better he plays. Jimmy can't beat someone he likes. He has to hate the person he's playing." Connors admits that he thrives on antagonism. "I like to have fans against me," he says. "I want to do everything I can to get them against me more. When they're yelling at me, I really get into the match. I guess I'm trying to show them that no matter how much they hate me, they have to respect the way I play."
Frequently, Connors adds, his tensions produce unintentional outbursts. "I'm hot, I'm thirsty, I'm tired, and I hear people yelling at me, and I crack. I'm so intense and tightly strung I sometimes don't know what I'm doing. Afterward I have to laugh at myself."
Not surprisingly, Connors has alienated most of his fellow pros. "He ain't one of the boys," says Arthur Ashe. "Right now he's sorely misguided. We hardly say hello." As a group, the world's top players are almost unanimously for Newcombe. "Never will I root so hard for an Australian to beat an American," admits one U.S. player. Their dislike for Connors is based only in part on his court behavior. They also resent the ways in which he has thumbed his nose at the tennis establishment. Items:
> He has refused to play on the U.S. Davis Cup team for the past two years on the grounds that it is selected and managed unfairly; without him the squad lost embarrassing early-round matches to Colombia and Mexico.
> He has played on a small winter indoor circuit run by his manager Bill Riordan, refusing to join most of the pros on the big-time World Championship Tennis (W.C.T.) tour.