Lendl, Ivan
Tennis
b. March 7, 1960, Ostrava, Czechoslovakia
A solid baseline player who rarely went to net, Lendl was long viewed as a very good player who wasn't quite great because he couldn't win the big tournaments. He grew up playing tennis--his mother was ranked second in Czechoslovakia, his father twentieth--and he turned professional in 1979 after having won the French, Italian, and Wimbledon junior titles in 1978.
Lendl took the Australian Open singles championship in 1983 and the French Open in 1984, but lost in the finals of the U. S. Open three years in a row, 1982 through 1984, and never reached the Wimbledon finals during the early 1980s.
However, he made a breakthrough in 1985, winning the U. S. Open and claiming the Number 1 world ranking for the year. He held on to that ranking in 1986, winning the U. S. and French Opens and finally reaching the final at Wimbledon, only to lose to Boris Becker in straight sets.
In 1987, Lendl won his third straight U. S. Open title and his third French Open. Again, he lost in the finals at Wimbledon, to the unheralded Pat Cash, but he retained the top ranking. After slipping to second behind Mats Wilander in 1988, Lendl was back atop the rankings in 1989, when he won the Australian Open but lost in the finals of the U. S. Open.
Younger players then began to pass him. Lendl dropped to third in 1990, fifth in 1991, eighth in 1992, and fifteenth in 1993. He won just one major tournament during that period, the 1990 Australian Open.
A native of Czechoslovakia, Lendl became a U. S. Citizen in 1992. He retired from competitive tennis in 1994. With 94 singles championships, he ranks second to Jimmy Connors on the all-time list. His $21,262,417 in winnings is fifth highest ever and he's tied with three other players for sixth with eight grand slam titles.