TORONTO - Jimmy Connors revolutionized tennis in the 1970s and, in the process, became the game's first television superstar. His 109 career singles titles included five U.S. Open Championships, two Wimbledon titles, and an Australian Open crown. He was ranked No. 1 in the world for 160 consecutive weeks and was among the world's top ten for an incredible 16 years (1973-88).

But, despite that success, Connors always played the role of the outsider. Controlled by his mother, despised by several rivals, criticized in the press for his on-court tantrums, Connors nonetheless became the game's richest as well as most controversial player.

In Jimmy Connors Saved My Life (SPORTClassic Books; $23.95), award-winning tennis writer Joel Drucker provides the most thorough examination ever attempted of one of the most complex characters in recent sports history. Praised by best-selling author Sally Jenkins (It's Not About the Bike) as a book that "jumps right off the page," Drucker combines meticulous research, dozens of interviews -- including interviews with Connors's former fiancйe Chris Evert and other tennis luminaries of the day -- and his first-hand experience to craft a book that is both a comprehensive biography of Connors and a memoir of the author's life as it intersected and ultimately clashed with the tennis superstar.

Although, as Drucker writes, Connors has few friends, the author became a confidant of the tennis star after their initial meeting in 1982. For a time, Drucker believed they were close, only to realize otherwise. While obsessed with Connors all the while, Drucker also came to view his lifelong hero as a greedy, narcissistic, paranoid, and sensitive man-child who was imbued with exceptional drive and talent. Drucker shows how Connors was branded with rage and ambition while growing up in a working-class St. Louis neighborhood, how those traits made him the most compelling player of his generation, and how those qualities ignited the author's own ambitions.

In her introduction, Emmy-nominated tennis broadcaster Mary Carillo writes, "Whether you like the son of a bitch or you hate him, the fact is that Jimmy Connors is the most important tennis player of the last 50 years ... He made tennis matter." In Jimmy Connors Saved My Life, Joel Drucker tells us what made Jimmy Connors matter, and how he became one of the most compelling personalities tennis has ever known.

Joel Drucker is a writer and television commentator who ranks among the world's preeminent tennis essayists of the past quarter century. His work has appeared in every significant American tennis publication, several major newspapers and scores of national general-interest magazines. He served as the technical editor for Patrick McEnroe's book, Tennis For Dummies and, in 1999, Tennis Week magazine honored Drucker as its "Writer of the Year." Drucker's extensive television resume includes credits as a co-producer and writer at CBS, ESPN, HBO, TNT and The Tennis Channel. He is also an on-air commentator for the international broadcast of the U.S. Open. A graduate with high honors from the University of California at Berkeley, Drucker lives in Oakland, California.

Mary Carillo has been a tennis analyst on television since 1986 for CBS, USA Network, and ESPN. She played tennis professionally from 1977 to 1980, and was ranked as high as No. 33 in the world. She won the 1977 French Open mixed doubles with partner John McEnroe. She lives in Naples, Florida.

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