Word: lendl
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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...
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...
...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...