Ivan Lendl
Ivan Lendl
Ivan Lendlis a former world no.1 professional tennis player and is currently coaching Andy Murray, alongside Jamie Delgado. Originally from Czechoslovakia, he became a United States citizen in 1992. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. He has been described as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Lendl's game relied particularly on strength and heavy topspin from the baseline and helped usher in...
NationalityCzechoslovakian
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth7 March 1960
CityOstrava, Czech Republic
If you become great, then you can become happy. If you're happy first, it's much more difficult to be great.
People may say I developed an iron will, but what really happened is that I made myself much fitter. I think an iron will is always supported by fitness.
I enjoy life. I always enjoy jokes.
It's very nice to see when somebody who wanted to work hard and is willing to put the work in gets rewarded for it.
When I lose, it doesn't just go to my head; it goes to my heart too. If you're at all in the match, if you love to play and ein, it must go to your heart.
I just travel all the time.
I'm certainly not sorry that there were some things I missed. You may think you're missing something at that time but later when you look at it, you didn't miss anything.
I believe the brain is like a muscle - like any other it can be improved.
I was between 2 and 3 in the world for two, three years. That's not exactly where I wanted to be.
I don't make a habit of watching tennis matches, but I try to watch all the major finals. I try to make time for that. So unless I have something going with the kids where I can't, I try to watch, and I enjoy that.
But to be fair, if you take players from my era to now, the game has changed and the players have many more shots. They use them differently than we did. The speed of the game has changed.
I got bad calls every match, and I never got an apology. So I thought it was rather strange.
But it's very difficult, I can tell you I played the Czech Open a few times and it's very difficult just to go on to a scene where the course is prepared differently when the greens are fast and he's not used to it and they're hard as a rock and he's not used to it.
It's flattering to be compared in any way to Tiger Woods, because he's the best player in the world.