"It was pretty cheesy but showed that we had moved on" - When Jimmy Connors spoke on kissing Chris Evert on the cheeks after their break-up
Jimmy Connors discussed the incident where he kissed Chris Evert on her on the cheek after their break up.
Evert and Connors were a high-profile tennis couple during the 1970s and were even engated to be married in November 1974. However, the two broke up that same year.
Connors wrote about the incident, when he met with Evert after their break up on a TV show in his book "The Outsider". The American said that Evert asked him to play mixed doubles with her for a CBS show called "Love Doubles".
Connors also said that he gave his ex-girlfriend a kiss on the cheeks, which, while being "cheesy", showed that there was no bad blood between them.
"OK, so it was not exactly a romantic date; this was on a staged TV show, where Chrissie asked me to play mixed doubles with her against Billie Jean and Marty Riessen for a CBS special called Love Doubles. I even gave Chrissie a kiss on the cheek when I said yes. Granted, it was pretty cheesy, but it showed that we were still friends and we had moved on," Jimmy Connors said.
Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors were both World No. 1 for over 250 weeks
Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors are both among the greatest tennis players of all time, and have both been No. 1 throughout their respective careers.
Evert was the very first women's World No. 1, attaining the ranking in 1974. Her first spell at the top saw her be at the top of the rankings for 25 weeks before being overtaken by Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Evert's longest stay as World No. 1 was that of 113 weeks from May 1976 to July 1978. She had a total of nine spells at the top of the rankings, the last of them coming in 1985. All in all the American was the World No. 1 for a total of 260 weeks, which was a women's record until Martina Navratilova surpassed her.
Jimmy Connors first reached the summit of the ATP rankings in 1974 and held the position for 160 successive weeks till 1977. Like Evert, he too had a total of nine spells at the World No. 1, being there for 268 weeks. Connors' last spell at the top of the ATP rankings came in 1983.