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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