Ivan Lendl

Excellent Sportmanship

Evil-ly good, Lendl intimidated an entire generation of players. Even McEnroe called him the Darth Vader of tennis. He established standards of technique, practice, fitness and consistency that forced all the other players to reach up. He and his game are the template for today's game.

It's always baffled me when people describe Lendl as an efficient, workmanlike player. There was a kind of animal grace about him, a lean, stripped-down power and precision that made him oddly beautiful to watch. The slo-mo action replays really capture the elegance of his movement, allied to the sheer ferocity of his hitting. And his courageous, ultimately doomed attempts to win Wimbledon actually make his career all the more interesting. I agree that he would surely have won the title were it not for the heyday of such grass-court specialists as Becker, Edberg and McEnroe. I also think that he would win Wimbledon if he were playing now. The truer courts and slower balls would have been to his advantage. Overall, I would rate Lendl alongside Borg, Sampras and Federer as the four titans of the modern game.

Anyone who watches tennis all year round, as opposed to just 2 weeks at Wimbledon every summer, knows that Lendl is one of the all-time greats. 8 straight US Open finals, 19 Grand Slam finals, all those weeks at world number one - he was quite simply the most consistent and dominant player of the 1980s. McEnroe's rose-coloured account of his own career is that he ran out of opponents when Borg retired - what really happened is that Lendl sent him, and his outdated methods, into early retirement. As a commentator said after Lendl had annihilated McEnroe in 1987 US Open quarter finals, it was like watching a "heavyweight take on a middleweight". Ok, he never won Wimbledon, but his record there was actually amongst the very best in the 1980s (semi-final or better 7 times), and it's often overlooked that his 2 Final appearances there came hot on the heels of also making the Final at Roland Garros both years (a rarity nowadays). Bombproof technique, a fantastic will-to-win and a refusal to ... Read more

The greatest...

tennis is not the same sport since lendl ..look at sampras and federer they are a clear view of lendls influence in modern tennis . he had seven ..yes seven consecutive apprearances at the masters final !!!! ...seven consecutive years at the masters final !!!! what a domination .

Ivan Lendl was an immaculate tennis player who i have always supported-never a peoples champion like mcenroe ,becker etc,he managed to achieve a career record which undoubtedly places him on top as one of the all time greats of tennis-superb forehand borne out of sheer hard work and detemination,he had the champions desire to be the best and was the best in the world in his prime.A truly great tennis player

has a good moments in 85, 86, and 87 but he is not the great one! no like to watch im...

Lendl was a great player. A fantastic athlete, the most dedicated and professional of his era. 8 slams is more than McEnroe won though Mac was clearly more talented. That speaks a lot for Ivan's mental toughness. He was a very very consistent player - stayed at the top for so long. He was the player of the 80 without a doubt. Unlucky to be playing againt Becker at his best on grass in 85 and against Cash playing the match of his life in 86. I loved this guy because nobody else liked him and he stayed focused on the job at hand. Much respect to Ivan Lendl. Certainly in the top 7 or 8 players of all time.

Waaaaay underrated. Brought so much professionalism to tennis (who was the first guy to change rackets every change of balls, the first to really work out with a tennis focus etc).

The greatest tennis player of all time, save maybe Pete Sampras (who himself was pretty much Lendl). 'Ivanko' was God-like, menacing, powerful, and downright intimidating. I was one of the few that would always support Lendl as a kid, never caring that my friends always rooted for Edberg or Becker. Ivan Lendl was something else - and what a record at the toughest of tournaments. The French Open is no doubt the most gruelling of the Slams - and here Ivan won 3. 8 straight US Open Finals - was this guy human? + 2 Australian titles. WOW! His grass record was very good too - Ivanko was actually a good grass court player with two Queens titles and 3 Wimbledon finals, and semifinals. If that's isn't good on grass, what is? Read this article - 'Ivan Lendl, The Father of Modern Tennis' by John Figaro. (http://www.1stserve.com/legacy.htm) The great man deserves his due.

Awesome if you look at his record and his domination .. the guy could never lose before the quarters in Grand Slams in his peak .. even Pete Sampras used to speak volumes about him.. the first truly great professional

GOOD, BUT NOT TOP 5 MATERIAL!

The ultimate professional. Ivan had that quality that made him look like a winner. he had mental toughness that was only 2nd to Wilander and he was a super athlete. Ivan has been involved in some of the most memorable matches I have ever seen. the fact he never won wimbledon does not detract from his genius. This guy could belt it from both wings and was very clinical. Great passing shots.

He is the most durable champion the game has ever seen, and probably will ever see. If it had not been for his incurable back injury in '92, he would have continue to fight for the grand slams for a couple more years. Most people discount Lendl from the list of all-timers because he had no on-court flare/personality, but they fail to notice where he was brought up and how that can make a person a bit of a defensive guy. Considering that none of start at the same set of starting blocks in life, this guy had to do it better, faster, cleaner, longer than anyone else ever in tennis.

So underrated. If he won just 1 Wimbledon, he would be thrown in the mix as maybe the greatest of all time. Don't look at just the grass in England. Remember how dominant he was in the French and US Opens.

While commentating on the '89 Becker/Lendl U.S. Open final, Mary Carrillo observed that, win or lose, Lendl had to be considered the player of the '80's. He was the only player to have won at least one tournament every year during that decade, and his year-end ranking was always in the top 3 (with the exception of 1980, when he finished sixth). Lendl took fitness and dedication to levels tennis had never seen. Wilander has said that, though he enjoyed playing McEnroe and Connors more, he admires Lendl most of all, since in just a few years Lendl went from being a guy known for choking away big matches to being the tennis equivalent of "Mr. October". Sports Illustrated called Lendl "the champion nobody cares about", but there was a lot about his game to enjoy. He had a beautiful forehand; its big wind-up had clearly been learned in the days of wooden racquets, but Lendl tamed the power of the new graphite frames (largely by using a small racquet head and thin, super-tight strings) ... Read more

anyone who really knows tennis can only stand in awe before Ivan Lendl's accomplishment. He actually built himself into the champion he ended up to be, step by step. You only have to compare the way he played at his first grand slam final (Roland Garros 1980 or 81 I believe) and how he played in the mid 80S : it's almost as if it is two different people ! And he never stopped improving. He was terrible at volley. Not bad. Pure disaster. Yet at the end of his career he went wery close to winning Wimbledon playing a superb (not decent, superb) serve-volley game. He only failed to win Wimbledon because Becker and Edberg were emerging at the time he gave it a try . He radically changed the way tennis was played by bringing an entire new dimension of athleticism. After him every ambitious player knew they had to be supremely fit if they wanted to compete. Because of that, he has had, by far, a more profound influence on tennis than anyone else in the last thirty years ( far more... Read more

truly the player with the biggest hard for competition. he had the the most charisma of all and it was allways entertaining and spectaculare, to watch him play. somebody, who is still very much missed on the atp tour and unreplaced.

Failed to win the biggest title in tennis

The GREATEST : lOOK AT HIS RECIRDS: MOST GRAND SLAM FINAL APPEARANCES - 19 MOST MASTERS TITLES 2ND ON ALL TIME LIST-TOURNAMENTS WON, WEEKS AT NO. 1, CONSECUTIVE WEEKS AT NO. 1 AND SO MANY MORE RECORDS...

I agree that Lendl was the most underated tennis player of the era. Evryone seems to have forgotten his dominance and then advances he brought to the game in terms of preparation and fitness

He is the doberman of tennis history. He was tough as hell.

It does not matter if some people do not like Ivan Lendl and say some bad words about him, Lendl was, is, and will be one of the greatest tennis players of all time! I have been practicing tennis and playing tournaments for 18 years and during these years I have seen a lot of tennis champions and good players. What makes Ivan Lendl the greatest to me is that he worked so hard in his way to the top and managed to stay there for 10 years! It is a shame for players who have much more talant to leave it unfulfilled! Ivan Lendl squeezed the last drop of his talant and body in order to achieve the maximum of his potential, which makes him an individual who deserves great respect! Since many people were exercizing their mouth by talking against him, instead of trying to recognize his abilities and learn from them, these people cannot even dream to compare with Ivan Lendl, because the only muscle they ever trained was their big mouth! I believe that any single tennis player who remembers Ivan ... Read more

Admit it, 8 straight years of US Open finals coupled with Australian and French titles makes for a dominating presence on court. All at a time when he lacked the charisma that the media and tennis public wanted.... He had awesome focus on his profession. Underrated by the general public in my opinion. Unfairly.

ivan lendl is truly the greatest tennis player to EVER play the game, bar none.

I guess he was a good player but he sucks as a person.

A true professional dedicated to his craft, Lendl never had the charm or presence of COnnors, McEnroe, Agassi, etc...but he had the best forehand of his time, if not all-time and he mastered the game. Had he won Wimbledon, I would have placed him very close to the top.

Won with class. A true champion. Didn't take any crap off of Connors or McEnroe either.

Good player or not this guy just looked evil with those big old blood sucking fangs he had jutting out of the corners of his mouth, (shiver). He just looked like the epitome of eastern block evil during the early eighties. Always half expected him to go Poof!, turn into a bat and fly away.