Word: lendl
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...moment, for the sheer unmeditated joy of doing it. In mid-career they play for the money. At the twilight of fitness, they play for the memories, seeking one last accomplishment to etch their names in history. For the two dominant tennis players of the decade past, Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova, all the conceivable goals of a career have narrowed to one: the All-England Lawn Tennis championship, or Wimbledon, which starts this week and is the sport's premier tournament precisely because it is the most historic...
...skittish, demonstrative blond woman and the brooding, phlegmatic chestnut-haired man have much in common. Both grew up in Czechoslovakia, and both left. Navratilova, who defected in 1975, is a naturalized U.S. citizen; Lendl, who renounced his former homeland more subtly, soon will be. Both struggled to master English, and both now speak it fluently, with a dry, self- belittling wit. Both love all manner of sports: Lendl is a fiend for golf and hockey, while Navratilova is enchanted with skiing, basketball and, as a spectator, American football. Both rose to the top through raw physical power, and both have...
Navratilova and Lendl both bypassed June's French Open, one of the sport's four Grand Slam events and a pivotal factor in determining the No. 1 ranking that Lendl has and that Navratilova aches to regain from Steffi Graf. They / stayed away because the slow brick-dust surface in Paris rewards tactics that are entirely different from what works on the fast and often bumpy grass at Wimbledon. With only two weeks between the tournaments, there was too little time to shift gears. Clay-court players typically stay back near the baseline and trade shots until an opponent makes...
Navratilova's once and future countryman Lendl is similarly closing in on Jimmy Connors' record for most tournaments won. He already holds records for prize money won in a season, $2,334,367, and in a career, $16,282,293. But the only goal he speaks of with affection is to win Wimbledon for the first time. To achieve that, he has invested ten weeks in unpaid practice on grass courts on three continents. He wants to become the fifth man ever, and the first in more than two decades, to complete a career Grand Slam. (Wimbledon and the Australian...