Icons Jimmy Connors Signed Photo: US Open Champion

In a celebration of its 40th anniversary in 2005, TENNIS magazine published a list of the 40 best players of the last four decades. Jimmy Connors, the former world number one and eight-time major champion, ranked seventh, behind the likes of Pete Sampras, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Bjorn Borg. But there are many tennis fans who would have ranked him much higher with little thought. The five-time US Open champion, two-time Wimbledon winner and 1974 Australian Open title holder is still the only male player to win more than 100 titles and has triumphed in over 1,200 matches of the some 1,500 he played in. Quite simply, Jimmy Connors is among the very best of the best.