Steady Climb Gives Lendl a Long Reign

Ivan Lendl used to envy the young hotshots who rose quickly to the top in men’s tennis, winning Grand Slam titles about the time they started shaving.

As he looks back now on a decade he dominated with his consistent, sometimes brilliant play, he’s grateful he took the slower path.

“I think it helped me that I was climbing slowly and didn’t shoot up there like McEnroe or Becker,” Lendl says. “That let me be more steady.

“When you’re young, you think, ‘Why does it take me so long when some other guys went so quick?’ You would prefer to go quick, too. I think in the end it pays off. You don’t burn out, and you appreciate winning because you had to work very hard and it took you so long before you started winning.”

In 1980, Lendl, a lonely and shy 20-year-old from Czechoslovakia, was the No. 6 men’s tennis player in the world. He had learned the game from his parents, both formerly high-ranked players in their country, and he was doing well in his third year as a pro.

He won seven tournaments in 1980, but still couldn’t get past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event.

His big weapons were a slingshot-like forehand and an overwhelming desire to win. They were enough to get him close to the top but not to No. 1.

It took five more years, an overhaul of his game from his grip to his strategy, a new diet, rigorous, endless exercises and a program of “mental aerobics” before Lendl began to rule the men’s tour.

Lendl broke through to the level of a Grand Slam winner when he won the French Open in 1984. A year later, Lendl decided that fitness was the key to winning and began a program for body and mind with the help of nutritionist Robert Haas, psychologist Alexis Castori and former pro Tony Roche of Australia.

He ran and bicycled thousands of miles between matches and hit millions of balls in practice, pushing himself obsessively to be stronger and tougher.

He gave up eggs, burgers and steaks for pasta, chicken, vegetables and fruit. He stayed slim but his thighs bulged, and hard, sinewy muscles in his arms and calves gleamed in the sun.

He controlled his emotions on court and drew from his inner strengths--concentration, dedication, intensity.

The result was immediate and dramatic. Lendl, at 25, won the U.S. Open in 1985 for the first of three straight years and buried the rap that he couldn’t win the big matches. He had lost in the U.S. Open finals the three previous years.

For 156 straight weeks, from that first U.S. Open victory until Sept. 12, 1988 when he lost in the U.S. Open finals to Mats Wilander, Lendl held the top spot on the ATP computer rankings. He is No. 1 again this year, the fourth time he has finished the year on top since 1981. He finished No. 2 three times and No. 3 twice.

The hard work has paid off with more than $14 million in career prize money and many times that in exhibition matches and endorsements. Lendl describes his style of tennis as “reasonably complete, with nothing too flashy.”

Jimmy Connors is more fiery, John McEnroe more artistic and Boris Becker stronger and wilder. All have more defined styles than Lendl.

“I’m not the typical baseliner and not the typical serve-and-volleyer,” Lendl says. “I’m somewhere in the middle. I can come in if I have to, and I can stay back, be patient and defend myself if I have to.

“Maybe that’s what has hurt me in Wimbledon, though,” he adds with a laugh.

Wimbledon, the one Grand Slam event he hasn’t won, is the one that he’d like most in the remaining years of his career. He has reached the finals three times and the semifinals three more, but he’s never held the big winner’s plate.

Heading into the 1990s, he’s still at the top despite an invasion of a new generation of tennis hotshots. One of them, Michael Chang, beat Lendl in the French Open finals this year as Lendl uncharacteristically made unforced errors after winning the first two sets.

Mostly, though, Lendl has been able to adjust his game through the years to handle the styles of younger players.

If he keeps up his fitness program and his desire to win, Lendl could even be a contender for player of the 1990s.