Via
The Daily News: In his new memoir, "The Outsider," Jimmy Connors writes about his childhood in hardscrabble East St. Louis, being serenaded by Frank Sinatra and drinking -- at age 16 -- with Dean Martin, plus his struggles with obsessive-compulsive order, dyslexia, infidelity and a gambling addiction. And he covers his complicated relationships and rivalries with Bjorn Borg, Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Vitas Gerulaitis. But it's his romance with one Christine Marie Evert -- whom he strongly suggests had an abortion shortly before they were to marry in 1974 -- that will really get fans' tongues wagging:
He
writes:
“An issue had arisen as a result of youthful passion and a decision had to be made as a couple. Connor said he wanted to “let nature take its course” and accept responsibility “for what was to come.”
But the then-19-year-old Evert, who was raised in a devout Roman Catholic home, made a different call. “Chrissie ... made up her mind that the timing was bad and too much was riding on her future,” wrote Connors.
Connors, who had been staying in a Los Angeles apartment with his pal, fellow short-fused legend Ilie Nastase, was perturbed that Evert decided the matter for the both of them. “Well, thanks for letting me know,” Connors claims he told Evert. “Since I don’t have any say in the matter, then I guess I’m just here to help.”
The romance between Connors, the reigning bad boy of tennis, and Evert, who was America’s tennis sweetheart, had played out in public and captured the country’s imagination as both won tournament after tournament. But Connors, who was barely 22 at the time, had been harboring deep misgivings about getting married. And that phone call from Evert shook him badly. Connors said he suggested to Evert they “take a step back and think about giving this a little more time.” Evert was apparently thinking the same thing.
“O.K., if that’s what you think,” she replied coldly, Connors recounted. “I’ve got a match tomorrow. Not a problem.”
And that, Connors claims, “was it.”
Yeah, Miss Ice Maiden: Thanks for letting him know. Now I wonder if he let
her know he was putting this in his book 40-some years later!
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Growing up in Madison Heights, Mich.
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Little Larry left us too soon.
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