Ivan Lendl

Ivan Lendl (born March 7, 1960) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player.

He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Lendl was ranked world No. 1 in singles for a then-record 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles.

He won eight major singles titles and was runner-up 11 times, making him the first man to contest 19 major finals.

Lendl also contested a record eight consecutive US Open finals, and won five year-end championships.

In 1978, he won the boys' singles titles at both the French Open and Wimbledon and was the world No. 1 ranked junior player.

Lendl turned professional in 1978.

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.

Lendl was part of Czechoslovakia's Davis Cup winning team that year.

He was the driving force behind the country's team in the first half of the 1980s, and was also part of the Czechoslovak team that won the World Team Cup in 1981 and was runner-up in 1984 and 1985.

The success continued in 1981, as he won ten titles, including his first season-ending Masters Grand Prix tour title, defeating Vitas Gerulaitis in five sets.

He relocated to the United States in 1981, first living at the home of mentor and friend, Wojtek Fibak.

He reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open in 1981, where he lost in five sets to Björn Borg.

Lendl is the only man in professional tennis history to have a match winning percentage of over 90% in five different years (1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1989).

He also had a comfortable head-to-head winning record against his biggest rivals, which translates to a 22–13 record (4–3 in major matches) against Jimmy Connors and a 21–15 record (7–3 in major matches) against John McEnroe.

Lendl's dominance of his era was the most evident at the year-end championships, which feature the eight best-ranked singles players.

He holds a win–loss record at the event of 39–10, having contested the final nine consecutive times, a record.

Commonly referred to as the 'Father Of Modern Tennis' and 'The Father Of The Inside-Out Forehand', Lendl pioneered a new style of tennis; his game was built around his forehand, hit hard and with a heavy topspin, and his success is cited as a primary influence in popularizing the now-common playing style of aggressive baseline power tennis.

After retirement, he became a tennis coach for several players; in particular, he helped Andy Murray win three major titles and reach the world No. 1 ranking.

Lendl was born into a tennis family in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic).

His parents were top players in Czechoslovakia, and his mother Olga, born Jeništová, was at one point ranked the No. 2 female player in the country.

Lendl first came to the tennis world's attention as a junior player.

In 1982, he won 15 of the 23 singles tournaments he entered and had a 44-match winning streak.

Lendl competed on the World Championship Tennis (WCT) tour, where he won all ten tournaments he entered, including his first WCT Finals, where he defeated John McEnroe in straight sets.

He faced McEnroe again in the Masters Grand Prix final and won in straight sets to claim his second season-ending championship of the WCT.

In an era when tournament prize money was rising sharply due to the competition between two circuits (Grand Prix and WCT), Lendl's title victories quickly made him the highest-earning tennis player of all time.

Lendl's second came at the US Open in 1982, where he was defeated by Jimmy Connors.

Lendl won another seven tournaments in 1983; however, he had not won any Grand Slam titles in the early years of his career.

In 1983, he was the runner-up at both the Australian Open and the US Open.

In July 1983, Lendl played three exhibition matches (against Johan Kriek, Kevin Curren, and Jimmy Connors) in Sun City, South Africa, in the apartheid-era bantustan of Bophuthatswana.

The Czechoslovak Sport Federation (ČSTV), controlled by the Communist Party, expelled him from the Czechoslovak Davis Cup team and fined him $150,000.

Lendl disputed the punishment and the fine.

In 1984, Lendl bought his own house in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Lendl's first Grand Slam title came at the 1984 French Open, where he defeated McEnroe in a long final.

Down two sets to love, and trailing 4–2 in the fourth set, Lendl came back to claim the title 3–6, 2–6, 6–4, 7–5, 7–5.

McEnroe subsequently beat Lendl in straight sets in both finals of the US Open 1984 and Volvo Masters 1984 (played in January 1985).

Lendl lost in the final of the 1985 French Open to Mats Wilander.

He then faced McEnroe again in the final of the US Open, winning in straight sets.

It was the first of three consecutive US Open titles for Lendl and part of a run of eight consecutive US Open finals.

However, he stopped playing in these events after he moved to the United States in 1986 because Czechoslovakia's Tennis Association viewed him as an "illegal defector" from their country.