Lendl first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player. In 1978, he won the boy's singles titles at both the
French Open and
Wimbledon and was ranked the World No. 1 junior player.
Lendl made an almost immediate impact on the game after turning professional. 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 on three different surfaces. The success continued in
1981 as he won 10 titles.
In
1982, he won in total 15 of the 23 singles tournaments he entered and had a 44-match winning streak.
He competed on separated
WCT tour where he won all 10 WCT tournaments he signed-in.
In an era when tournament prize money was rising sharply due to competition of 2 circuits (Grand Prix and WCT), Lendl's haul of titles quickly made him the highest-earning tennis player of all time.
He won another seven tournaments in
1983.
But
Grand Slam titles eluded Lendl in the early years of his career. He reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open in 1981, where he lost in five sets to
Björn Borg. His second came at the
U.S. Open in 1982, where he was defeated by Jimmy Connors. In 1983, he was the runner-up at both the
Australian Open and the U.S. Open.
Lendl's first Grand Slam title came at the
1984 French Open, where he defeated
John McEnroe in a long final to claim what was arguably his most memorable victory. Down two sets to none and later trailing 4-2 in the fourth set, Lendl battled back to claim the title 3-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-5. McEnroe gained revenge by beating Lendl in straight sets in both finals of the U.S. Open 1984 and Volvo Masters 1984 (played in January 1985).
1985 was arguably Lendl's best year on the tour as he captured 11 singles crowns in 17 tournament appearances. Lendl lost in the final of the
1985 French Open to
Mats Wilander. He then faced McEnroe again in the final of the U.S. Open, and this time it was Lendl who emerged victorious in a straight sets win. It was the first of three consecutive U.S. Open titles for Lendl and part of a run of eight consecutive U.S. Open finals. In 1986 and 1987 he added wins in the French Open to his U.S Open victories
During each of the years from 1985 through 1987, Lendl's match winning percentage was greater than 90%. This record was equalled by
Roger Federer in
2006. Ivan, however, remains the only male with at least 90% match wins in four different years (1982 was the first). From the 1985 U.S. Open through the 1988 Australian Open, Lendl reached ten consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals -- a record that was broken by Federer at the 2006 US Open.
1989 was another very strong year for Lendl. He started the year by capturing his first Australian Open title with a straight sets final victory over
Miloslav Mecir and went on to claim 10 titles out of 17 tournaments he entered. Lendl successfully defended his Australian Open title in
1990.
The only Grand Slam singles title Lendl never managed to win was Wimbledon. After reaching the semifinals in 1983 and 1984, he reached the final there twice, losing in straight sets to
Boris Becker in 1986 and
Pat Cash in 1987. In the years that followed, Lendl put in intensive efforts to train and hone his game on grass courts. But despite reaching the Wimbledon semifinals again in
1988, 1989 and 1990, he never again reached the final.
Lendl was part of the team that won Czechoslovakia's only
Davis Cup title in 1980. He was the driving force behind the country's team in the first half of the 1980s but stopped playing in the event after he moved to the United States in 1986 because, in the eyes of communist Czechoslovakia's Tennis Association, he was an "illegal defector" from their country.
Lendl was also part of the Czechoslovakian team that won the
World Team Cup in
1981 and was runner-up in
1984 and
1985.
Lendl won the tour's year-end
Masters championships five times in
1981-82 and
1985-87.
Lendl's success in the game had a lot to do with his highly meticulous and intensive training and physical conditioning regime, his scientific approach to preparing for and playing the game, and a strong desire to put in whatever it took to be successful. It is believed that a contributing factor to his run of eight successive U.S. Open finals and long record of success at that tournament was that he hired the same workers who laid the
hardcourt surfaces at
Flushing Meadows each year to install an exact copy in the grounds of his home in
Greenwich, Connecticut.
Lendl announced his retirement from professional tennis on
December 21, 1994, due to chronic back pain. Although he didn't play official match since loss in 2nd round of US Open 1994 he made a final decision to retire three and a half months later. It is an irony that the man who made such a religion of physical fitness had to close the career due to the health problems.
Lendl won a total of 94 career singles titles listed by the ATP (plus other 49 non-ATP tournaments making thus total of 143 singles titles) and 6 doubles titles, and his career prize money of U.S. $21,262,417 was a record at the time. In
2001, he was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame.
After finishing his tennis career, Lendl has taken up
golf, earning a
handicap of 0 and organizing a charity competition in
2004 called the "Ivan Lendl Celebrity Golf Tournament".
Lendl's professional attitude, modern playing style, scientific training methods, and unprecedented long-term success have had a considerable impact on today's tennis world. A typical Lendl quote is:
"If I don't practice the way I should, then I won't play the way that I know I can."
