[7] Connors turned professional in 1972 and won his first tournament, the Jacksonville Open,[8] quickly followed by his second at Roanoke,[8] third at Queen's Club,[8] fourth at Columbus,[8] fifth at Cincinnati[8] and sixth at Albany.

[9] Connors did not participate in the French Open during his peak years (1974–78), as he was banned from playing by the event in 1974 due to his association with World Team Tennis (WTT).

Pro Indoor in Philadelphia, Palm Springs and Las Vegas,[8] he achieved a record of 90–8 and defeated Borg all four times they played.

[8] In 1982, Connors experienced a resurgence as he defeated John McEnroe in five close sets "that varied from boringly slow to fiercely brilliant" to win the Wimbledon final.

2 in points earned, but he was named Player of the Year by the ATP and was ITF World Champion due to his victories at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Connors walked off the court, after hitting a service-return winner against Chang on the first point of the fifth set, having just levelled the match by winning the fourth.

Connors participated in his last major tournament, in the 1992 US Open, where he beat 22 year old Jaime Oncins in straight sets in the first round on his 40th birthday,[38] before losing to Lendl (then ranked No.

In September 1992, Connors played Martina Navratilova in the third Battle of the Sexes tennis match at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

[39] In February 1993, Connors reached the semifinals of the San Francisco tournament, beating Richard Matuszewski, Bryan Shelton (in an ill-tempered match in which Shelton afterwards accused Connors of disrupting his concentration by stalling, yelling obscenities and playing to the crowd)[40] and 21 year old Chuck Adams, before retiring against Brad Gilbert due to bone spurs in his right foot.

[43] Prominent contemporary players with Connors included Phil Dent, Brian Gottfried, Raul Ramírez, Harold Solomon, Dick Stockton, Roscoe Tanner, and Guillermo Vilas.

His prominent older opponents included Pancho Gonzales, Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe, John Newcombe, Ilie Năstase, Stan Smith and Manuel Orantes.

His prominent younger opponents included Vitas Gerulaitis, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.

[48] In 1975, Connors won two highly touted "Challenge Matches", both arranged by the Riordan company and televised nationally by CBS Sports from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

[3] Connors played Newcombe six matches listed on the ATP website, with Newcombe winning the first two meetings on grass (1973 US Open quarterfinal and 1975 Australian Open final) and Connors winning the last four on indoor carpet (WCT Aetna World Cup 1976 and 1978) and hard courts (1978 Sydney Indoor quarterfinal and 1979 Hong Kong round of 16).

In 1982, at age 29, Connors was back in the Wimbledon singles final, where he faced McEnroe, who by then was established firmly as the world's top player.

"[45] In 1974, Connors and Riordan began filing lawsuits against the ATP and its president, Arthur Ashe, for allegedly restricting his freedom in the game.

The lawsuits stemmed from the French Open banning Connors in 1974 after he had signed a contract to play World Team Tennis (WTT) for the Baltimore Banners.

[53] Just before the start of Wimbledon 1975 the British press reported that Riordan had filed lawsuits claiming damages against Arthur Ashe and ATP secretary Bob Briner.

Ashe had criticised Connors in a letter as “seemingly unpatriotic” for playing lucrative ‘challenge’ matches, rather than joining the U.S. Davis Cup team and Briner had called Riordan, a “nihilist”.

Connors explained that this necessitated his rushing to meet the doctor at the entrance to the grounds, and then convincing Nastase to help him try out the splint on a practice court.

A month after the incident, the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council decided that Connors would be banned for 10 weeks and fined $20,000 (in addition to $5,000 imposed on the day of the match).

Perry's modern best behind Laver: "Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Hoad, Jack Kramer, John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall, Manuel Santana".

[63] In the modern era of power tennis, Connors' style of play has often been cited as highly influential, especially in the development of the flat backhand.

Tennis commentator Bud Collins nicknamed Connors the "Brash Basher of Belleville" after the St Louis suburb where he grew up.

In an era when the serve and volley was the norm, Björn Borg excepted, Connors was one of the few players to hit the ball flat, low, and predominantly from the baseline.

During the Wimbledon tournaments of 2005, 2006, and 2007, Connors commentated for the BBC alongside John McEnroe (among others), providing moments of heated discussion between two former archrivals.

[71] On July 24, 2006, at the start of the Countrywide Classic tournament in Los Angeles, American tennis player Andy Roddick announced his partnership with Connors as his coach.

[72] Connors was engaged to fellow tennis pro Chris Evert from 1974 to 1975, and they each triumphed in the singles events at the 1974 Wimbledon Championships, a feat labelled "The Lovebird Double" by the media.

[76][77] In the fall of 1988, Connors auditioned to host the NBC daytime version of Wheel of Fortune, a show of which he and his wife "never missed an episode".

In the liquidation, Connors, through his company, Smooth Swing, acquired the Alystra Casino in Henderson, Nevada, for $1.9 million from Union Planters Bank, which had foreclosed on John.