Word: lendl
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...these tales of woe to five Harvard losses when tied at the half, and three more Crimson defeats after leading with under five minutes to play, and a clear pattern emerges. One is reminded of the young Ivan Lendl before he beat John McEnroe by coming back from two sets down in the 1984 finals of the French Open--talent to take the early lead, but lacking the intangibles to close...
...good tournament player as a junior, writes about tennis almost as well as Roger Angell writes about baseball. Here's his take on Jean Fleurian, losing a tough one to Pete Sampras: "If the Frenchman could have imagined winning, he would have won." He nails Ivan Lendl's monstrous adequacy: "Antonio Salieri in a sweatsuit." And he quotes a fan's remark about John McEnroe that hits the turbulent center of the man: "He just liked to create chaos. Because he was comfortable with it. With chaos...
Tennis players are on intensive view for longer periods than any other athletes, which is why they hide their heads under towels at changeovers. But Feinstein does not give us that view. He does not show Lendl or Becker or Navratilova moving on a court. A single exception illustrates what is missing. Jimmy Connors, Feinstein says, was playing singles in the early stages of a tournament, and another match was under way on the adjoining court. Connors went wide for a ball, slugged a winner, was carried into the next court by his momentum, saw a ball from the other...
...Lendl too is aging in a sport increasingly dominated by those in or barely out of their teens. Of the 127 other players in the men's draw, about 120 will be younger. His deadliest rivals, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, are veterans of half a dozen years on the pro tour at, respectively, 22 and 24. Already these fresh-faced youths show signs of ennui. Says Arthur Ashe, the former everything of U.S. tennis: "Half a dozen 20-year-olds are playing now with net worths around $15 million to $20 million. It's natural their desire will drop...
What distinguishes a champion in any sport is an unquenchable drive to meet goals set from within. For Lendl, the goal at Wimbledon seems not to be victory so much as Zen-like peace of mind about doing his best: "I did not want to look back and wonder, 'If I tried this or that . . .' " After years of his being an unpopular hero, that dogged determination is at last winning him fans -- and memories may follow...