Martina Navratilova vs. Jimmy Connors 1992 Las Vegas

[don_budge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Qx3F7QiD4

1992 Las Vegas. Lots of celebrities. Something for everyone here...men, women, the politically correct. Have at it.

Pressure...Connors spots her one and a half feet of extra court on either side of the court. More importantly he gets only one serve. Imagine the pressure of only having only one serve the entire match. Connors had bet a million dollars on himself.

Woman? She's built like a horse.

[hockeyscout]

Great post!

I just watched that match with my young one a few days ago. I've got so many nice things to say about Jimmy's backhand. His mommy did a great job there, it is world class. Martina is unbelievable, although she had an off day here I think. When god created the ideal woman tennis player he created MN. We call out ball machine MARTINA NAVRATILOVA because it's like a horse, it just never stops! Sometimes it runs out of power and dies, and the young one takes infinite pleasure in this saying: "Martina gave up papa. Navratilova down. Haha, I tired (ededit) out freaking Martina Navratilova."

don_budge, sure hope you go balls to wall and post your account of this one.

[stotty]

I've watched the first nine games so far. Terrible game...both players so tentative. Navratilova is so mentally conditioned to hitting in the singles court she has hardly used the trams yet!

A better way to play it would have been not to switch ends and have Connors's end a wider singles court. This way Navratilova would have felt mentally less boxed in from a lifetime of trying not to hit the trams.

Interesting that Connors was visibly feeling more pressure in that match than he showed when playing Borg or McEnroe. Well, you can't lose to a girl, can you? You would never live it down. Riggs must have suffered deep inside...poor man.

[GeoffWilliams]

I saw the Riggs and Connors matches live. Was not impressed. But the Riggs match drew more attention/tension than any other match in history. Too bad he lost. Billie Jean was more man than woman.

[don_budge]

Under Pressure...Queen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Qx3F7QiD4

I've watched the first nine games so far. Terrible game...both players so tentative. Navratilova is so mentally conditioned to hitting in the singles court she has hardly used the trams yet!

Under Pressure...Queen

...I love this video...at 2.52 he says that "love" is such an old fashioned word and the video shows these old black and white kisses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I

...live at Wembley! At 2.06 he tells the crowd...in a most affectionate way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRaSEMNZn98

Yes...pressure. What is pressure? In this case it is having the cards stacked against you...and then turning around and doubling down on yourself to win. A simple case of putting your money where your mouth is. Connors was a rare individual. He often did just that...what is more...when he was a player he showed up and let his playing do his talking for him. He was the kind of guy that showed up and if something was bothering him...you would never know it. He never spoke of his injuries. Once he took the court there was only one issue...win or lose. That doesn't mean he wasn't above engaging in gamesmanship. You see he was the rarest of competitors...he simply would not take no for an answer.

So he give Ms. Navratilova an alley on either side of the court and he limits himself to one serve. What does he do? He doubles down and lays a cool one million dollars on himself right there in "Sin City" to win. Not only win...I believe that he spelled out a certain score that he must maintain.

There was pressure built into this winner take all bonanza...or banana. Which ever way you choose to see it. Traditional tennis would have maintained that somehow a contest like this Big Time Wrestling format was undermining the dignity of the sport. But the truth is dignity in professional tennis had long been removed from the equation of.

Martina played with the strength of nearly a man. I say nearly a man because as far as I know she was a woman...but just for the sake of argument I would like to take a look at here ring and index fingers. A chromosome test might be fun.

So Jimmy was 40 years old...about the age when a man starts to feel vulnerable...physically, emotionally, spiritually, sexually...and Martina or Martin starts to put the pressure on him from the start of the match or was it just that he was tentative. Whatever...the combination had him spending the first half hour trying to sort things out. He was a bit overwhelmed...not to mention down 1-3 in the first set.

On his first serve down 1-3 on his serve he "single faults" for 0-15. He wins the second point but again "single faults" for 15-30. At this point he is having an existential crisis if he is human. But he is Jimmy Connors and serves his way out of a jam...with only a second serve to begin each point. Now that is pressure.

At 3-3...again on his serve he finds himself at yet another existential moment in the "match". He quickly goes up 40-0 but he "single faults" twice in a row. Then Martina plays a tremendous point to even at deuce. It is difficult for me to imagine what kind of pressure that is to only have a second serve in front of such a big crowd with everything that was on the line that day. He manages to hold serve again and it is a big hold indeed. He held onto his confidence and just went back to work. In this match there was no letting down until the proverbial horse was securely in the barn. You can say what you want about Connors...he left himself open for discussion too...he has what you call "real intestinal fortitude".

But Connors being Connors...he the ultimate competitor albeit a "mama's boy" he weathered the initial butterflies and ended up beating the panties off of "Girl Wonder". This business of having to serve only second serves in such a pressure situation...a bunch of people...not only people but celebrities. His peers above peers. You have no idea the pressure that a second serve can put on you unless you try a stunt like this. This is exactly what it was too...it was a stunt and Connors was perhaps the only stunt man with the balls to attempt such a thing at his age and put a million dollars on himself to boot.

Psychologically there is much to examine here. Culturally too. Even tennis politics wise. But I have another project in the works. I don't have time to get into it. I hope some of you do...put your heads together. See what you can come up with.

[bottle]

Resisting One's Comfort Zone

My first tennis instructor, Jim Kacian, played with and against Martina in Har-Tru doubles at the Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"She was just one of the guys," he said.

I think she has grown into one of the best commentators in the game.

She is the only television announcer of note who urges her tennis-playing listeners to explore technique, i.e., "Get out of your comfort zone."

[hockeyscout]

Best compliment a woman tennis player can get!