Jimmy Connors reveals his favorite tennis rivals, says he took "great pride" in being the one to beat

Former World No. 1 Jimmy Connors opened up about his favorite players to beat over the course of his career on the latest episode of the 'Advantage Connors' podcast.

When asked which player he took the most satisfaction in defeating, Connors said that he enjoyed beating the players who challenged him to perform at his highest level. The American named John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, Vitas Gerulaitis, and Jose Luis Clerc as some such players.

“I like beating the guys who brought out the best in me and even beyond that so who was that? I can mention Lendl, I can mention McEnroe, I can mention Borg, I can mention Vilas, I can mention Gerulaitis, I can mention Jose Luis Clerc," he said.

The eight-time Grand Slam champion stated that he took pride in knowing that he was the one to beat in his rivals' eyes. He was also proud of his ability to adapt to different match circumstances, even when not playing at his best.

"I always took great pride in knowing that I was the one guy that everybody wanted to beat more than anything because of a lot of things that happened early in my career and all that. That’s just the way it was," he opined.

"But I took great pride in that because I knew that I had to figure it out that day," he added. "If I was a 100% I knew I was okay but if I was only 70%, I had to figure it out. Figure out a way to win. I knew it would be tough but what else did I have to do. I wasn’t going to do anything else for those three hours."

"I loved playing him because I knew he was going to grind just as much as I was" - Jimmy Connors on Eddie Dibbs

Jimmy Connors giving an interview. [File photo]

Jimmy Connors also recounted his experience of playing against fellow American and former World No. 5 Eddie Dibbs.

"There’s other guys like my friend Eddie Dibbs, I loved playing him. I loved it because I knew when he played me he was going to grind just as much as I was and we were going to get so dirty on the clay, especially playing on the clay. It was going to be dirty and we’d come off of there exhausted. So there’s guys I liked playing just because of that," he said.

Connors led 16-1 in his head-to-head against Dibbs, which included a 14-match win streak between 1976 and 1980.