Jimmy Connors

The “Heavyweight Champion of Tennis”, Jimmy Connors, now 55, became pro in 1972. He learned tennis from his mother, Gloria, who was a pro at teaching tennis. He held Number one spot in the ranking in 1974 for 160 consecutive weeks. He won 5 championships at the United States Open and won the Wimbledon two times and the Australian Open one time. His elbow was injured in 1990, and the next year in 1991, he then dropped to 936 in the ranking.

Bjorn Borg

            In Sweden, Bjorn Borg was a hero. The reason is that In the Wimbledon men’s singles for five years. He won from 1976 through 1980. Only two other men achieved this before! Bjorn was born in 1956. As a kid he lived in Sodertalje, Sweden. The reason he started tennis was because his dad won a ping pong competition, and won a tennis racket. He was very interested in the racket and started playing tennis. Bjorn, a particularly good baseline player changed his style and concentrated on his serves and volleys before 1976 in Wimbledon.

Helen Wills Moody

            Helen Wills Moody, or Little Miss Poker Face, a name for describing her expressionless face while playing tennis, won Forest Hills and Wimbledon for a second year in 1928. She also won seven national singles titles in 1920. “She plays her game with a silent deadly earnestness, concentrated on her work. That, of course, is the way to win games but it does not please galleries,” wrote a New York Herald Tribune reporter describing Helen’s facial expressions. Little Miss Poker Face had seven U.S. titles and six Wimbledon titles in 1933.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario

            Arantxa became professional at age fourteen. Fourteen is an early age to become professional, and most people don’t until later. She started playing at age four, and won her first Grand Slam title, the French open at seventeen. Winning a grand slam title is very special, that means that you are the best out of a whole group of people who you played against, which is really good. In 1994 she was also ranked number one in the world!

Martina Hingis

            Martina Hingis started playing tennis with her mom, Melanie Molitor, at age two. She started by hitting tennis balls every day for ten minutes each day. In 1995 she became the youngest tennis player to win a singles match in the open era at the Australian open at just fourteen years old when she turned sixteen; she also became the youngest to reach the number one ranking when she defeated Monica Seles. Her other hobbies are horseback riding, and rollerblading.