89. Curry Kirkpatrick and the '75 US Open cover art

89. Curry Kirkpatrick and the '75 US Open

89. Curry Kirkpatrick and the '75 US Open

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 1974 was a banner year for Jimmy Connors… He entered three Grand Slams and won all three of them. He was ranked #1 in the world and was engaged to Chris Evert. Life was good. But in 1975, things didn’t go quite as smoothly. His engagement to Chrissy was called off… and while he was still the most dominant player in the world, he failed to win a Grand Slam, losing in the finals at the Australian Open to John Newcombe, in the finals at Wimbledon to Arthur Ashe, and now in the finals of the US Open to Manual Orantes. Was this the beginning of the end for Connors? Hardly. He would win 5 of his Grand Slam titles starting in 1976 at the US Open where he would there again in ’78, ’82 & ’83 as well as Wimbledon for a 2nd time in 1982. And who would forget his incredible run at the 1991 US Open at at the age of 39. Curry Kirkpatrick hasn’t forgotten it. He was covering a good portion of Connors and Evert’s careers back when they were the King & Queen of tennis for Sports Illustrated and gives us an inside look at what happened to Jimmy against Orantes in the finals of ’75. A simple reason for the shocking win was the Spaniard was sensational on clay courts, and beginning in 1975, Forest Hills surface was clay for 3 years. Advantage Orantes. Curry also tells us what happened on the women’s side of the draw as Chris Evert was beginning her dominance of tennis… Having won the French Open in 1974 & ’75 as well as Wimbledon a year earlier, Evert added the US Open to her list of achievements… and it was the first of 6 US Open Titles in her storied career as she would win it again in ’76, ’77, ’78, ’80 & ’82. Two of tennis all-time greats were dominating tennis in the 70’s and Curry was there for all of it and joins us on POP to tell us how Orantes almost didn’t even get to the finals and how that loss by Connors was just a blip as he would continue to be a force in tennis for another 15 years! And he tells us how at age 16 “he invented” Chris Evert writing the first major story about her in SI before penning the final installment of her illustrious career in the late 80’s when she retired from the sport. Nobody knows Connors and Evert from the mid 70’s like Curry Kirkpatrick and he joins us for a record 5th time on the show to regale us with great stories of two of tennis’ all-time greats… Jimmy and Chrissy… on the Past Our Prime podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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