The Outsider: A Memoir - Softcover

Connors, Jimmy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061285250 ISBN 13: 9780061285257

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2013

Synopsis

The Outsider is a no-holds-barred memoir by the original bad boy of tennis, Jimmy Connors.

Connors ignited the tennis boom in the 1970s with his aggressive style of play, turning his matches with John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, and Ivan Lendl into prizefights. But it was his prolonged dedication to his craft that won him the public's adoration. He capped off one of the most remarkable runs in tennis history at the age of 39 when he reached the semifinals of the 1991 U.S. Open, competing against players half his age.

More than just the story of a tennis champion, The Outsider is the uncensored account of Connors' life, from his complicated relationship with his formidable mother and his storybook romance with tennis legend Chris Evert, to his battles with gambling and fidelity that threatened to derail his career and his long-lasting marriage to Playboy playmate Patti McGuire.

When he retired from tennis twenty years ago, Connors all but disappeared from public view. In The Outsider, he is back at the top of his game, and as feisty, outspoken, and defiant as ever.

This autobiography includes original color photographs from the author.

About this title

Review:

"An engrossing five-setter, with intense exchanges and no tiebreakers... Like the individualists Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Pete Rose and Chuck Berry, Connors was authentic. The book reflects that swagger." (New York Times)

"Eye-poppingly indiscreet: The Outsider makes most sports autobiographies feel like very tepid affairs in comparison." (Daily Mail)

"Exhilarating... served up at full pelt, as if Connors were charging at readers with his double-handed backhand, complete with sweaty grunts." (Mail on Sunday)

"As spiky and uncompromising as you would hope... candid and funny." (Marcus Berkmann Daily Mail, Sports Books of the Year)

"Kudos to Jimmy Connors for valiantly trying to argue in his autobiography, The Outsider, that the current spectacle of Roger Federer, Djokovic and Nadal - whose courtesy and dignity generally match the superlative quality of their play - has nothing on his own era of incontinent litigiousness, oncourt swearing, childish tantrums, umpire abuse, celebratory crotch-grabbing and mutual hatred between top players. Connors' book has the ring of honesty... a magnificent snapshot of his era." (Ed Smith New Statesman)

Book Description:

The sensational autobiography of the most successful and charismatic tennis player of all time

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0061285250
• ISBN 13: 9780061285257
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 560