Ivan LendI - Reflecting on the victory that changed the trajectory of men's tennis
Words by Jerry Solomon
When the men walked out to play the French Open final in 2024, it marked the 40th anniversary of Ivan Lendl’s legendary win on the famed center court at Roland Garros. It was a victory that forever changed the trajectory of men’s tennis.
Sometimes you remember exactly where you were when certain things occurred. As Ivan’s manager, that match was one of those times.
Ivan was battling that afternoon and as we often did in those days, we would talk throughout the match. Nothing too interesting. Just light banter.
But on that day we weren’t saying much. I was sitting in the front row behind the court. Ivan was working hard and the air was tense.
After losing the first two sets, slowly the match started turning and after three previous attempts to win a major title, Ivan Lendl was a Grand Slam champion.
He would go on to play in 19 Grand Slam finals, winning 8, finish as the year end #1 five times, win the Tour Championship 5 times, make 8 consecutive US Open finals, win the Davis Cup and get inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He won 44 straight matches at one point. And he won tournaments in bunches. In 1982 he won 15 tournaments in an era where many events had best of 5 set finals.
But none of that was where his greatest impact was because while he was compiling one of the greatest records of all time he was also redefining what it meant to be a professional tennis player.
He studied practice sessions and training techniques. He scouted his competition closely. He became schooled in fitness and nutrition. He worked with the experts to fine tune the weight and balance of his rackets and the tension of his strings. He began the ritual of changing rackets on every ball change. He had sawdust in his pocket to keep his hands dry and electrolytes in his water. His on court demeanor was choreographed so that no one knew if he was excited, energized, angry or tired.
He was built to win and that he did.
And when the other players started to realize his dominance, they either withered or changed their approach to the game…changes that are felt to this day.
After spending a week at Ivan’s house training, one top 20 player said of the experience, “if that’s what it takes to be #1, I don’t care about being #1”.
So as we marvel at the skill level of today’s top players, on this anniversary of his historic comeback win in Paris, it’s appropriate to step back and salute Ivan Lendl who has been called the “father of modern tennis” by some but by any measure is one of the great players ever to wield a racket.