"People said I couldn't do that to people like Jimmy Connors" - When John McEnroe spoke about comfortable win over his rival in Wimbledon final
John McEnroe once said that he was happy to register a comfortable win over Jimmy Connors in the 1984 Wimbledon final.
McEnroe entered the tournament as the top seed and reached the final following wins over Paul McNamee, Rodney Harmon, Wally Masur, William Scanlon, John Sadri and Pat Cash. In the title clash, the American produced a comprehensive display to beat Jimmy Connors 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 to win the tournament.
McEnroe said that he was just giving as good a performance as he could, adding that his head was not going to drop.
"I was in there giving it the best I could. All week I was seeing the ball as big as a basketball, and today I couldn't find it. I've been in situations like that when I've won and situations when I've lost. My head's not going to drop. It hasn't dropped in 31 years and it's not going to drop now," the American said.
McEnroe, who won the 1983 Wimbledon Championships with a comfortable victory over Chris Lewis, said that he was glad to attain a similar victory over Connors as many thought he wouldn't get a victory like that over the likes of his rival and Ivan Lendl.
''People said I couldn't do that to people like Connors or Lendl, so it was nice to be able to. I'm sure Chris (Lewis) feels better also," McEnroe said.
John McEnroe leads 6-3 over Jimmy Connors in Grand Slam matches
John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors have faced each other nine times at Grand Slams, with the former winning six of those matches.
The first meeting between the two came in the semifinals of the 1977 Wimbledon Championships, with Connors winning 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. The eight-time Grand Slam singles champion also won their next Major encounter which came in the semifinals of the 1978 US Open.
John McEnroe won the next three Grand Slam encounters between the two, all of which were semifinal clashes. The first Major final between Connors and McEnroe came at the 1982 Wimbledon Championships, with the former winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-4.
McEnroe went on to win his next three Grand Slam matches against his rival. All in all, he had a 20-14 head-to-head lead over Connors. The last meeting between the two came in the semifinals of the 1991 Swiss Indoors, which John McEnroe won 6-1, 6-3.