Tommy Hindley	Michael cole	getty images
Jimmy Connors	Jeff Tarango	Andre Agassi

jimmy connors Blood and Guts

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Jimmy Connors had a ferocity like no other, a never-say-die/always-say- kill ‘tude that made him one of the best ever. Raised and taught on the wrong side of the tracks by women, it was men who he brawled with a digit held defiantly in the air: a screw the establishment, me-first, “you’re an abortion” ferocity. He rarely played Davis Cup, never joined the ATP, wasn’t much into ceremonies and created his own circuit and Senior tour. The blood and guts gladiator would leave plenty of detractors in his wake: linespeople, officials, opponents and anyone who dared to disagree. He sued Arthur Ashe, berated McEnroe, Sampras and Agassi and was even booed at Wimbledon for snubbing a Parade of Champions. Chris Evert told ESPN, “We went to church one day and Jimmy went into confession and he came out a half-hour later. I said, ‘How’d it go?’ and he said, ‘Well, the priest told me to come back next Sunday because I wasn’t done.”

But give Connors credit for bringing legions into the sport. He became an icon at his beloved U.S. Open, where drama-hungry New Yorkers were attracted to his love of the battle. There was a huge codependency between Joe Sixpack up in the bleachers and Jimmy the Everyman chasing down overheads. “I needed the tennis,” Connors said. “ The tennis was what I was all about — my pride and performance... The fans are the ones that pay their money, they’re begging to get into it and to be sucked into what’s going down there on the court.”

torben ulrich Do Butterflies Dream?

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It’s only fitting that he looks like a long-lost member of ZZ Top, but actually, Torben Ulrich’s son, Lars, is the drum-bashing force behind the hard-rocking band Metallica.

Athlete/Buddhist/painter/musician/actor/author/filmmaker, the bearded Dane once backed Louis Armstrong on clarinet, played Davis Cup until he was 48 and liked to “empty his mind” by sitting cross-legged on a Wimbledon practice court. Peter Burwash recalled that “Back in the ‘60s, I was in the locker room and Torben was upside down in the shower staring at a tennis ball. I asked, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘If I can see the ball this well when I’m upside down, when I stand up, I figure I’ll see it even better.’” On another occasion, Ulrich was playing a match at the Berkeley Tennis Club when his opponent launched an all-lob attack. “I told him that if it was that important for him to be annoying in order to win, then okay. But he continued even more so,” Ulrich recalled. So he just walked off the court mid-match.

Once during a key point at the U.S. Open, a butterfly distracted him. Ulrich mused “Was I then a man dreaming I was butterfly? Or am I now a butterfly dreaming I am a man?”

To him, sports was “all about finding other ways of playing. To be close to the game, to become at one with the ball ... and the play. Sport is not always about achieving a goal — it’s more to do with moving forward. Seeing moment. Seizing moment. Bingo!”

jeff tarango No One's Robot

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As a player, he was a journeyman. As a tennis personality, he was larger than life, entwined in one controversy after another, from his attempt to bring the ATP to its knees to his infamous Wimbledon meltdown where he was booted out and his French wife slapped the ump (who, yes, she used to date).

The former Stanford star and Manhattan Beach resident left bush fires wherever he went. “I don’t have Pat Riley in my corner, I just have myself,” he noted. “I have to fight sometimes to get an honest call. I’m only fighting for my stake...A lot of times what people are seeing is my frustration coming out...[But] I’ve always made tennis more exciting. People say ‘tantrum’ like it’s a bad thing, but it also works to make tennis a headline sport...You can’t get mad at someone for caring. Some people think you should go home quietly and scream into a pillow. Tennis is blood, sweat and tears. You can’t get the blood and sweat, and then be a robot.”

jeff borowiak The First Hippie of Tennis

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Any list of tennis’ wackiest characters has to include a soul from Berkeley. Borowiak is our man. Aficionados still debate whether the lanky Berkeleyite — who liked to play “shadow tennis” in grassy meadows and found more pleasure in practicing than winning titles or money — was more of a hippie or an eccentric intellectual who loved jazz, was an accomplished flutist and a Buddhist. Yes, “Boro” won the NCAA singles and doubles championships while at UCLA, and spent a decade on tour, but the image that lingers is of Borowiak, rackets strapped to his back, peddling his bicycle to and from the All-England Club.

andre agassi Zen Master After All?

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Has anyone cleaned up their act or evolved over the course of their career more than Andre (“I Once Was a Sinner/Now I’m a Saint”) Agassi? It’s a near miracle that the son of a casino greeter who had little formal education would end up being one of the most introspective players ever, a cherished analyst and a generous soul with giving instincts. After all, this is the guy who once after a loss immediately fired his chaplain. This is the dude who Ivan Lendl dismissed as being merely “a forehand and a haircut.” Others said he was a “twerp” or a “frosted flake.” Once defined by his “image is everything” reputation — denim shorts, Day-glo shirts, big mouth, big belly, Davis Cup snits — as well as his parabolic rise-fall-rise in the rankings and celebrity marriages to Brooke and Steffi. The 34-year-old now is not merely the most compelling figure in tennis, but since Ashe, he’s been the most inspiring guy that our game has produced.