"My mom took a lot of criticism" - Jimmy Connors on his mother Gloria being condemned for teaching him tennis "to beat men"

American former tennis player Jimmy Connors recently revealed that his mother Gloria faced backlash for teaching him tennis, a sport predominately played by men back in the day.

Connors received his initial lessons in tennis from his mother. Gloria herself played the sport and participated in the US Open in 1942 and 1943. At the age of 16, Connors started training under Pancho Segura.

Gloria passed away on January 8, 2007, at the age of 82. At that time, Connors was working with former World No. 1 Andy Roddick. In his career as a player, Connors won a total of 109 singles titles, out of which eight came at the Grand Slams.

Jimmy Connors recently talked about the contribution of his mother and grandmother to his success during a recent episode of the Advantage Connors podcast.

"I would have never known about the game if it wasn't for my mom and my grandmother from a little town in Illinois, where, which is pretty extraordinary, tennis wasn't it back then," he said (at 37:34).

Connors' long-time friend Casey Defranco, who also featured in the episode, suggested Gloria's impact was significant given the tennis industry was dominated by men. The American approved of Defranco's opinion and said:

"To beat men. Exactly. It's interesting that you say that, Casey, because my mom took a lot of criticism for that."

The eight-time Grand Slam champion added his mother Gloria never took a step back in supporting him, even though the sport didn't offer a financially stable life back then.

"But that never really took away from her the feeling about wanting me to be a part of the game and try to get better. And, who knows where that was going to take anybody. There was no money back then. ‘What am I going to do? Go win the US Open and get a handshake?'" he stated.

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Jimmy Connors feels "lucky enough to still be a part of tennis"

Jimmy Connors speaks at an event

During the same episode, Jimmy Connors also stated that the sport has given him the luxury to live a restful life.

"As much as I love the game and still do, I've been lucky enough to go on and to be able to occupy my time with other things, and that has been made possible by the playing of tennis. There's no repaying that," he said.

The 71-year-old further thanked the sport that remains an important part of his life after all the years. He said:

"We're lucky enough to still be a part of that. But that still doesn't take away from my feelings for the game. If I did something for the game, I'm happy about that, but the game certainly did a lot for me."

Jimmy Connors hung up his racket in 1996. His coaching career spanned a decade from 2006 to 2016. He trained the likes of Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard.