Ivan Lendl

Ivan Lendl (born March 7, 1960) is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. Tennis magazine named him as one of the ten greatest tennis players since 1966, calling him "the game’s greatest overachiever" and emphasizing his importance in the game’s history. In his book Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis, Bud Collins included Lendl in his list of the 21 greatest male tennis players for the period from 1946 through 1992.

Lendl captured eight Grand Slam singles titles during his career. He competed in a total of 19 Grand Slam singles finals, a record for a male player. He reached at least one Grand Slam final for 11 consecutive years, an all-time record since tied by Pete Sampras.

Lendl first attained the World No. 1 ranking on the men's professional tour on February 28, 1983, bolstering his claim to the top spot when he defeated John McEnroe in the 1985 U.S. Open final. For much of the next five years, Lendl was the top ranked player until August 1990 (with short break from September 1988 till January 1989 when Mats Wilander was at the top). He finished four years ranked as the world's top player (1985-87 and 1989) and was ranked World No. 1 for a total of 270 weeks, breaking the record previously held by Jimmy Connors (this has since been surpassed by Sampras).

Lendl's game relied particularly on strength and heavy topspin from the baseline and helped usher in the modern era of "power tennis." He himself called his game as "hitting hot", a relentless all-court game that was coming to dominate in tennis.

Personal life

Lendl was born into a tennis family in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). His parents were top players in Czechoslovakia. (His mother was at one point ranked the No. 2 woman player in the country). Lendl turned professional in tennis in 1978. He started to live in the United States in 1981, first at the home of mentor and friend Wojtek Fibak; later, in 1984, Lendl bought his own residence in Greenwich, Connecticut. Ivan applied for and received a U.S. Permanent Resident Card (also known as a Green Card) in 1987 and wanted to get U.S. citizenship as soon as possible to represent the USA in the 1988 Olympic Games and in Davis Cup. A bill in Congress to bypass the traditional five-year waiting procedure was rejected in 1988 because Czechoslovak authorities refused to provide the necessary waivers. He became a U.S. citizen on July 7, 1992.

On September 16th, 1989, six days after losing the final of the U.S. Open to Boris Becker, he married Samantha Frankel. They have five daughters - Marika (born May 4, 1990), twins Isabelle and Caroline (born July 29, 1991), Daniela (born 1994) and Nikola (born 1998). He transferred his competitive interests to professional golf where he captured a win on the Celebrity Tour. Still competitive at the mini-tour levels, Lendl now devotes much of his time managing the development of his daughters' golfing abilities. Three of his daughters (Marika, Isabelle and Daniela) play golf at U.S. Girls Juniors level.

South African exhibition affair and disputes with Czechoslovak authorities

In July 1983, Lendl played three exhibition matches (against Johan Kriek, Kevin Curren and Jimmy Connors) in Sun City, in the apartheid-era bantustan of Bophuthatswana. The Czechoslovak Sport Federation (?STV) controlled by Communist Party expelled him from the Czechoslovak Davis Cup team, fined him $150,000  and publicly threatened to prohibit him from traveling abroad for future tournaments. Lendl disagreed with the punishment and fine. He also did not travel to his native country since then being there last time for Davis Cup in March 1982.

In addition, the publication of his name and results in the Czechoslovak media was prohibited. The ban was extended not only to Lendl but to anything about world tennis, to all tennis tournaments, both men's and women's circuits (with exception of blank Grand Slam results without any comments). World tennis disappeared from the censored Czechoslovak media on August 16, 1983 when this "secret embargo" came into effect.

The appearance in this exhibition in Sun City and Lendl's americanized living style ignited a long-lasting dispute between Lendl and Czechoslovak authorities, which was never settled and resulted in Ivan's decision to apply for a Green Card in 1987 and later on for U.S.citizenship.

Style of play

Lendl was, along with Bjorn Borg, an early proponent of the Western forehand grip. His trademark shot was perhaps his running forehand which he could direct either down the baseline or cross-court. Early in his career Lendl played a sliced backhand but in the early 1980s learned to hit his backhand Western style. This shift allowed him in 1984 to defeat John McEnroe in the French Open after trailing two sets. His crosscourt backhand in that event baffled McEnroe and allowed Lendl to gain his first grand slam. (Careful scrutiny of the French Open final against John McEnroe will show Lendl was playing cross court passing shots in the first two sets, which was easy for McEnroe to intercept, seeing how close he habitually placed himself with regard to the net when volleying. In the third set, Lendl changed his tactics and starting using lobs against McEnroe. This forced McEnroe to place himself further away from the net in order to "anticipate" the lobs. The new position of McEnroe at the net opened the angles for Lendl's cross court passing shots, which ultimately gained him points and turned the match around.) Lendl's serve was extremely powerful but inconsistent. His very high toss may be to blame. While difficult to categorize as style of play, one can say that Lendl rose to dominance in the early 1980s by learning to read McEnroe's serve. Though tall and apparently gangly, Lendl was very fast on court. The mystery of his career is why, with such assets as speed and power serving, Lendl was never able to capture a Wimbledon title. To the end of his days on the ATP circuit Lendl favored a small-faced Adidas racquet.

Tennis career

Lendl first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player. In 1978, he won the boy's singles titles at both the French Open and Wimbledon and was ranked the World No. 1 junior player.

Lendl made an almost immediate impact on the game after turning professional. After reaching his first top-level singles final in 1979, he won seven singles titles in 1980, including three tournament wins in three consecutive weeks on three different surfaces. The success continued in 1981 as he won 10 titles.

In 1982, he won in total 15 of the 23 singles tournaments he entered and had a 44-match winning streak. He competed on separated WCT tour where he won all 10 WCT tournaments he signed-in. In an era when tournament prize money was rising sharply due to competition of 2 circuits (Grand Prix and WCT), Lendl's haul of titles quickly made him the highest-earning tennis player of all time.

He won another seven tournaments in 1983.

But Grand Slam titles eluded Lendl in the early years of his career. He reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open in 1981, where he lost in five sets to Björn Borg. His second came at the U.S. Open in 1982, where he was defeated by Jimmy Connors. In 1983, he was the runner-up at both the Australian Open and the U.S. Open.

Lendl's first Grand Slam title came at the 1984 French Open, where he defeated John McEnroe in a long final to claim what was arguably his most memorable victory. Down two sets to none and later trailing 4-2 in the fourth set, Lendl battled back to claim the title 3-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-5. McEnroe gained revenge by beating Lendl in straight sets in both finals of the U.S. Open 1984 and Volvo Masters 1984 (played in January 1985).

1985 was arguably Lendl's best year on the tour as he captured 11 singles crowns in 17 tournament appearances. Lendl lost in the final of the 1985 French Open to Mats Wilander. He then faced McEnroe again in the final of the U.S. Open, and this time it was Lendl who emerged victorious in a straight sets win. It was the first of three consecutive U.S. Open titles for Lendl and part of a run of eight consecutive U.S. Open finals. In 1986 and 1987 he added wins in the French Open to his U.S Open victories

During each of the years from 1985 through 1987, Lendl's match winning percentage was greater than 90%. This record was equalled by Roger Federer in 2006. Ivan, however, remains the only male with at least 90% match wins in four different years (1982 was the first). From the 1985 U.S. Open through the 1988 Australian Open, Lendl reached ten consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals -- a record that was broken by Federer at the 2006 US Open.

1989 was another very strong year for Lendl. He started the year by capturing his first Australian Open title with a straight sets final victory over Miloslav Mecir and went on to claim 10 titles out of 17 tournaments he entered. Lendl successfully defended his Australian Open title in 1990.

The only Grand Slam singles title Lendl never managed to win was Wimbledon. After reaching the semifinals in 1983 and 1984, he reached the final there twice, losing in straight sets to Boris Becker in 1986 and Pat Cash in 1987. In the years that followed, Lendl put in intensive efforts to train and hone his game on grass courts. But despite reaching the Wimbledon semifinals again in 1988, 1989 and 1990, he never again reached the final.

Lendl was part of the team that won Czechoslovakia's only Davis Cup title in 1980. He was the driving force behind the country's team in the first half of the 1980s but stopped playing in the event after he moved to the United States in 1986 because, in the eyes of communist Czechoslovakia's Tennis Association, he was an "illegal defector" from their country.

Lendl was also part of the Czechoslovakian team that won the World Team Cup in 1981 and was runner-up in 1984 and 1985.

Lendl won the tour's year-end Masters championships five times in 1981-82 and 1985-87.

Lendl's success in the game had a lot to do with his highly meticulous and intensive training and physical conditioning regime, his scientific approach to preparing for and playing the game, and a strong desire to put in whatever it took to be successful. It is believed that a contributing factor to his run of eight successive U.S. Open finals and long record of success at that tournament was that he hired the same workers who laid the hardcourt surfaces at Flushing Meadows each year to install an exact copy in the grounds of his home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Lendl announced his retirement from professional tennis on December 21, 1994, due to chronic back pain. Although he didn't play official match since loss in 2nd round of US Open 1994 he made a final decision to retire three and a half months later. It is an irony that the man who made such a religion of physical fitness had to close the career due to the health problems.

Lendl won a total of 94 career singles titles listed by the ATP (plus other 49 non-ATP tournaments making thus total of 143 singles titles) and 6 doubles titles, and his career prize money of U.S. $21,262,417 was a record at the time. In 2001, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

After finishing his tennis career, Lendl has taken up golf, earning a handicap of 0 and organizing a charity competition in 2004 called the "Ivan Lendl Celebrity Golf Tournament".

Lendl's professional attitude, modern playing style, scientific training methods, and unprecedented long-term success have had a considerable impact on today's tennis world. A typical Lendl quote is: "If I don't practice the way I should, then I won't play the way that I know I can."

Career achievements

• Most Grand Slam singles finals (19) in all-time tennis history
• Winner of 8 Grand Slam tournaments (achieved only by 11 male players in tennis history)
• Won 222 Grand Slam singles matches (third after Connors and Agassi)
• Eight consecutive singles finals at the U.S. Open (1982-1989), winning three of those finals (1985-1987)
• Second most consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals during the open era, with ten from the 1985 U.S. Open through the 1988 Australian Open (after Federer)
• Most consecutive Grand Slam singles quarterfinals during the open era, with fourteen from the 1985 U.S. Open through the 1989 Australian Open (before Federer with 13 from 2004 until now)
• For eleven consecutive years (1981-1991) reached at least one Grand Slam final (equaled by Sampras during 1992-2002)
• Four times the year-end World No. 1 (1985-1987, 1989) (tied with McEnroe, after Sampras with six years and Connors with five years)
• One of five players (the others being Connors, McEnroe, Sampras, and Federer) who were the year-end World No. 1 for at least three consecutive years (1985-1987).
• One of five players (the others being Connors, Sampras, Hewitt and Federer) who held the top ranking every week of a calendar year
• ITF World Champion (1985-1987, 1990)
• ATP Player of The Year (1985-1987)
• ATP Most Improved Player (1981)
• Second in career ATP tournament singles titles, with 94 (Connors won 109 ATP singles titles)
• Second in weeks (270) as the World No. 1 player (Sampras was the top ranked player for 286 weeks)
• Third (behind Connors and Federer) in most consecutive weeks (157) as the World No. 1 player (September 9, 1985-September 11, 1988)
• Second (behind Connors with 659 weeks) in most consecutive weeks (588) among top 5 ranked players (October 20, 1980-January 20, 1992)
• Second (behind Connors with 788 weeks) in most consecutive weeks (626) among top 10 ranked players (May 19, 1980-May 11, 1992)
• Second in career singles match wins (1,071) at ATP tournaments (Connors won 1,222 matches)
• Longest winning streak indoors: 66 matches between April 1981 (lost to Smid, Frankfurt 2R) and January 1983 (lost to McEnroe, Philadelphia F)
• Second longest winning streak on all surfaces: 44 matches during 1981-1982 (after Vilas with 46 matches from 1977)
• Only player to have won three tournaments in three consecutive weeks on three different surfaces (1985 Fort Myers-Hardcourt, Monte Carlo-Clay Court, Dallas, WCT Finals-Indoor Carpet)
• Most consecutive singles finals (18) in 1981 and 1982
• Only male player to have won at least 90 matches in three consecutive years (1980-1982)
• Only male player to have won at least 90 percent of his matches in five different years (1982: 106-9; 1985: 84-7; 1986: 74-6; 1987: 74-7; 1989: 79-7)
• Nine consecutive finals (1980-88) at Year-End Championships in New York (called Masters Grand Prix at that time), winning five of those finals (1981-82, 1985-87)
• Shares with Sampras the record for most Masters singles titles (5)
• Second most tournaments won (15) in a single year (1982) after Vilas who won 16 singles titles in 1977

Trivia

• Lendl won singles titles in 16 different countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, People's Republic of China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
• Lendl's record over players of his day were 6-2 over Andre Agassi, 11-10 over Boris Becker 2-5 against Bjorn Borg, 5-3 against Pat Cash, 5-2 against Michael Chang, 22-13 against Jimmy Connors, 4-0 over Jim Courier, 13-14 against Stefan Edberg, 21-15 against John McEnroe, 3-5 against Pete Sampras and 15-7 against Mats Wilander

source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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