“I just saw him up in the stands with another woman and it sort of threw me off”
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Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors were the “it couple” in tennis in the early 1970s. The dynamic couple grabbed the limelight when they became Wimbledon singles champions in 1974, and they were soon engaged to be married too. However, their love story was eventually cut short and their wedding was called off.
In an interview from 1990, Chris Evert revealed that when they were on the brink of separating, she spotted Jimmy Connors in the stands with another woman. This happened during her 1975 Wimbledon semifinal loss to eventual champion Billie Jean King.
“I don’t think actually (Jimmy Connors) appreciates me mentioning this, but I will anyways, since I opened my big mouth about it. But I was playing Billie Jean and I was up in the third, and at that time, we were going through, you know, we were sort of very, very rocky. I think we were breaking up actually. But I still had a lot of feelings for him, and I think I looked up and saw Jimmy with another girl,” she said.
The 18-time Major winner further noted that that was one of her raw moments, and suggested that people who thought she was unemotional were wrong. Evert also claimed that the incident played a part in her 1975 Wimbledon semifinal loss to King.
“I can’t believe I said this in public but I was, it was probably one of my more open moments, when I was very revealing, and I just said (that) it just really bothered me, and I think that people thought that I was such a machine out there, that I had no emotion, but in essence a lot of things and my emotional life affected my tennis and that was one of them,” Evert said.
“I just saw him up in the stands with another woman and it sort of threw me off a little bit, and I think I double faulted and it was my own fault you know, I wasn’t concentrating. But I think the reason I mentioned that was probably just to make it known that the stories about me, just being unfeeling all the time were not true,” she added.
Billie Jean King outclassed defending champion Chris Evert 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the Wimbledon 1975 semifinals, after which she defeated Evonne Goolagong Cawley 6-0, 6-1 to claim her 12th and final Grand Slam title.
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“I just saw him up in the stands with another woman and it sort of threw me off” 2022-10-18 00:24:14