Ivan Lendl

Ivan Lendl is a retired tennis player from the Czech Republic who later went on to become an American citizen. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he redefined the game with his power baseline style.

He was born in Ostrava (7 March 1960), Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), and comes from an avid tennis-playing family. His mother Olga Lendlova and father Jiri Lendl were both professional tennis players in their youth, with the latter even going on to become the president of the Czechoslovak Tennis Federation.

Lendl won 8 Grand Slam singles titles and was the most dominant player in the second half of the 1980s. He was part of many memorable rivalries against the likes of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, and Stefan Edberg.

He competed in 19 Grand Slam singles finals, a record surpassed by Roger Federer in 2009, Rafael Nadal in 2014 and Novak Djokovic in 2016. He reached at least one Grand Slam final for 11 consecutive years, a record shared with Pete Sampras, with the male primacy of eight consecutive finals in a Grand Slam tournament (a record shared with Bill Tilden at the US Open). Before the formation of the ATP, Lendl reached a record 12 year-end championships (equaled by John McEnroe). He won two WCT Finals titles and five Masters Grand Prix titles, with the record of nine consecutive finals. He also won a record 22 Grand Prix Super Series titles (1980–89), the precursors to the current ATP Masters 1000. Lendl first attained the world No. 1 ranking on February 28, 1983, and bolstered his claim to the top spot when he defeated John McEnroe in the 1984 French Open final. For much of the next five years, Lendl was the top-ranked player, until August 1990 (with a break from September 1988 to January 1989 when Mats Wilander was at the top). He finished four years ranked as the world's top player (1985–1987 and 1989) and was ranked No. 1 for a total of 270 weeks and set a new record previously held by Jimmy Connors since broken by Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. He is one of three male players (with Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer) to win more than 1000 tennis singles matches (1,071). Lendl has won 94 singles titles, second only in the Open Era to Connors' 109 titles. Lendl has been runner-up in a record 11 grand slam finals.

Lendl was the forerunner of the aggressive baseliner style of play that is so prevalent in today's times. He spent most of his time at the back of the court but constantly looked to dictate play - especially with his forehand.

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