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16 June 2012

IVAN, THE LENDL – A CHARISMATIC PERSONALITY



Ivan Lendl has been one of my most favourite players of all time. Born on 07 Mar 1960 in Ostrava, former Czechoslovakia, Ivan inherited lawn tennis from his parents. He turned pro in 1978 at the age of 18 when he set pace on a long and illustrious tennis career. With a very strong forehand, Ivan dominated the world tennis for 16 long years and remained No. 1 for a record 270 weeks. He was among the most dominating tennis players from late 70s to early 90s. Towering 6 ft 2 in, Lendl has also been one of the most humble and lovable players ever to grace the game of tennis. He reached at least one Grand Slam final for consecutive 11 years and captured a total of eight Grand Slams in his career out of 19 contested. He had first garnered the world attention in 1978 when he won Boys' Singles titles at both, French as well as Wimbledon.

In 1983, during the apartheid era, Ivan played three exhibition matches in South Africa and was expelled from the Czechoslovak Davis Cup team and fined by the communist regime, an action resented by him. He had already started living in the US from 1981 onwards and now he applied for the Green Card and eventually became a US citizen in 1992.

Ivan Lendl has been a paragon of hard work and fitness and his most famous quote is: "If I don't practice the way I should, then I won't play the way that I know I can." 



Ivan was a clay expert and grass was his weak turf. The one title that always eluded him was Wimbledon. He played Wimbledon 14 times and came close to winning the title twice but lost to Boris Becker in 1986 and to Pat Cash in 1987. He was the all time prize money champ with $21,282,417 when he quit. An avid golfer, he now lives in Vero Beach area, Florida.

Since I have been a great admirer of Ivan, I still feel particularly bad to think that one of the greatest and most powerful tennis players of all time was unable to win Wimbledon.
But he will always remain one of the most graceful and magnificent tennis stars of all time.




 


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