Connors Grinds Out One to Remember : Down 6-1, 6-1, 4-1 to Pernfors, He Battles Back for Vintage Win

If you had to pick one match out of a 17-year career to sum up the essence of Jimmy Connors, this one would do quite nicely.

It was a 1-6, 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 thriller over Mikael Pernfors on Wimbledon’s Centre Court Tuesday.

Pernfors, the 24-year-old Swede with a hedge for a haircut, not only blitzed Connors those first two sets, but had him down 4-1 in the third set.

Connors then took 14 straight points and won the set, 7-5. Pernfors took a 3-0 lead in the fourth set, but Connors broke twice to win that one, and the next.

Connors advances to the quarterfinals, where he’ll play serve-monster Slobodan Zivojinovic today on Court No. 1.

As riveting as this match was, Connors--who milks the theatrical potential of Centre Court as well as anyone, might have preferred even more drama on this warm and clear English afternoon.

He suffered a thigh cramp in the fifth game of the last set and later said: “I was always gonna finish the match, if I had to crawl.”

Now that would have been Connors-style drama--old Jimbo dragging himself on his knees about the greensward, tattered and bleeding, his corner throwing in towels but the old warrior rising up now and then to slam a two-handed winner past his peppy little opponent.

But even though Connors finished on his feet and walked off the court under his own power, this performance has to go down as one of the classic wins of his career, and one of the great comebacks of Wimbledon history. Maybe even No. 1.

In 1974, Ken Rosewall was down two sets and match point to Stan Smith in the semifinals, and rallied to win. In 1927, Henri Cochet was down two sets and 5-1 to Bill Tilden and won, also in the semis.

But Connors, the two-time Wimbledon champion (’74 and ‘82), hasn’t won a tournament since 1984 and was knocked out of Wimbledon in the first round last year. Tuesday’s win will necessitate a re-thinking of the Jimbo-is-dead school of thought.

Instead of wilting under the sun and the persistent baseline volleys of a much younger man, the 34-year-old Connors seemed to grow stronger and fresher and meaner as the 3 hour 37 minute match wore on.

“At 4-1 (down in the third set), I thought maybe I started attacking a little more,” Connors said. “When I broke him at 4-3 and held for 4-4, I felt I started striking the ball much cleaner.”

In the final set, Connors broke Pernfors’ serve in the third, fifth and seventh games and then heldhis own serve in the eighth game with four straight points, closing the match by winning the last eight points in a row.

In the second through fifth games of that last set, Connors had a streak where he won 16 of 19 points.

It was enough to make Pernfors’ hair stand on end, even though it already was.

If the heat and advanced age bothered Connors, he didn’t show it. In fact, maybe the old warrior simply needs a couple of hours on the court to get loose, to get the old juices flowing.

“It seemed at the beginning he was really stiff and not moving well,” Pernfors said. “When I had him down 4-1, I thought I had a very good chance of winning, but he just raised his game . . . he started moving around the court. He started putting more angle on his shots. When he started doing that, I knew I was in trouble.”

It became the kind of match that Connors likes to think he thrives on.

“Willpower came in at two-sets-all,” Connors said. “Then it was whoever was strongest mentally . . . once I broke him back in the fourth, it was just stay in the match and dig and grind and do what it takes.”

Connors sees himself as the foot soldier of tennis, down in the trenches with the tear gas and exploding shells.

“The best thing I did out there was grind and fight,” he said.

It was as if Connors knew if he could stretch this match out to three hours, or four or five, he could break the kid, who has never won a Grand Slam tournament and who has never been further at Wimbledon than the round of 16.

If Connors couldn’t wear Pernfors down physically, he could do it mentally.

“He wasn’t losing it physically,” Connors said of his opponent. “If he was tired, he didn’t show it.”

It became a Jimbo kind of match. It became the sport of tennis as defined by Jack Kramer, who said, “Winning tennis is giving your opponent one more chance to take gas.”

Certainly there is evidence that Connors and Pernfors stared each other in the eye, and the kid blinked. Pernfors is a hard-core baseline player who almost never approaches the net. He tends to wear down his opponents, force their errors, as he did the previous day in coming back from two sets down to beat Tim Mayotte.

But Tuesday, Pernfors’ normally steady baseline-placement shots began settling into the net, and Connors’ own game became bolder. He began to hit his forehand shots with confidence, which he has not done consistently in recent years.

He began to play the court like a billiard table, going for corners, playing sharp angles, setting up his shots, sending his opponent scrambling.

Once Connors escaped danger in the third set, he simply seemed to relax, and began playing more aggressively and confidently.

Pernfors was at a loss to explain what happened to the game that had him with more points than Connors, 53-26, through the first two sets.

“The way I played to get up 6-1, 6-1, 4-1, I thought was pretty good,” Pernfors said. “If he starts returning better, I can’t start serving better.”

Pernfors tried everything. After blowing that 3-0 lead in the fourth set, he was still leading 3-2 and still hoping to break Connors. On the first point of the sixth game, Connors lobbed behind Pernfors, who retreated and hit the ball between his legs, with his back to the net. Connors, waiting at the net, slapped away the miracle shot for an easy winner and went on to hold serve.

When it was over, it was Pernfors who seemed more fatigued. As they walked off Centre Court together, Connors reminded Pernfors that they would be expected to bow toward the Royal Box.

Said Pernfors: “I told him I didn’t know if I would be able to come back up if I bowed down.”

For those counting flags, it was a big win for America. Had Connors lost, it would have been the first time since the tournament allowed professionals in 1968 that no American reached the quarterfinals.

Connors was also the last American eliminated at the French Open three weeks ago.

Connors’ win also prevented Sweden from placing four players in the final eight of the men’s draw.

For Connors, it was just another stop on his vacation. He has been playing down the angle that he would desperately like to win this tournament a third time and cap his career.

“I don’t need to win Wimbledon again,” he said Monday, nonchalantly.

He has referred to tennis as a pleasant sort of working vacation.

But Tuesday, he swept aside any speculation that his casual approach off the court might result in a lack of aggression on the court, a dulling of the vintage Connors killer instinct.

The question now is whether Connors left too much of himself on Centre Court Tuesday, and just how much he has left in those 34-year-old legs.

“Now I’m in there,” Connors said, brushing aside the drama of the match just concluded. “If I can go out and play well tomorrow, that’s what it’s all about.”