Heart of a Champion: Ivan Lendl

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By Scoop Malinowski

Next in our new series “Heart of a Champion” is a nice story about Ivan Lendl from my good friend and hitting partner Brian Baxter…

“Growing up in New York as a junior tennis player, I identified with John McEnroe. I loved his fire, attacking style and his cool Mac Attack Nike shoes. Dunlop was my first racket sponsor and I even trained with Tony Palafox for two years. His battles with Ivan Lendl wwere always good vs evil for me. However as I got older, I had the opportunity to run the ballboy program at the Hamlet in Commack. What an experience to be around the greats, McEnroe, Lendl, Connors, Edberg, Forget, Noah, Kafelnikov, Gomez, Sampras etc. To watch them practice and play matches was heaven for a junior then college tennis player like myself.”

“I always remember Lendl and Andres Gomez saying ‘thank you’ whenever I brought them a towel and just talking to the ball boys. I ended up getting a full tennis scholarship, played no. 1 and in my junior year winning ‘Athlete of the Year.’ After graduation, I knew I needed to chase my dreams and take my shot on the Satellite (now Futures circuit). However, it costs money and we were a middle class family. I was lucky enough in my senior year to have Nancy Gill McShea write an article about me in Tennis USTA magazine, supplement to TENNIS magazine. My dad sent out the article and a tennis resume to many prominent people in the tri-state area. One of the few who really went out of there way to try and help was Ivan Lendl. We know for a fact that he sent my stuff to his agent and a few others to try and help and that really showed me what a class act he truly was! Sorry New York but after that day I became a Lendl fan forever. Yup, nothing but Adidas for me after that.”

 

[Fiero425]

I've always thought tennis fans and commentators were unnecessarily rude, harsh, and unforgiving of some players like Lendl and Navratilova! They were respected as being #1's, but the "love" just wasn't there! They were maligned in so many ways when they've truly been some of the nicest and most generous people on the tour! Thanks for your story! I've come across Martina a couple of times; once at my club for WTT in Sacramento and again in Chicago where I live now! She always said hello and gave me a great big smile! My mom even had a brief chat with her at her Midtown club! Both ex-Czechs were villainized IMO and it was and still is a shame how our media went along with it! The endorsements here in the States never materialized; Martina thrown a bone years after she retired hawking SVU's! Both Ivan and Martina are still doing their thing to help upcoming stars; Lendl making a point to practice with Sampras at his home in Connecticut before getting beat by him at '90 USO! o_O :spank2:

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Fiero426, the media has its agendas and narratives and it sticks to them. Lendl was an easy target. McEnroe as a New Yorker was always going to get the preferential treatment. Lendl was always nice to me, he was the first big name tennis great who I ever did a Biofile with, at Hamlet Cup in 92. And most recently he did a nice interview about Facing McEnroe. Martina was harder to get, she gave me the "you have to go through the proper channels" line when I approached her for a spontaneous interview a few years ago.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

How did McEnroe bully Lendl in the media? That was before my time watching tennis closely.

 

[Fiero425]

Scoop Malinowski writes:

Fiero426, the media has its agendas and narratives and it sticks to them. Lendl was an easy target. McEnroe as a New Yorker was always going to get the preferential treatment. Lendl was always nice to me, he was the first big name tennis great who I ever did a Biofile with, at Hamlet Cup in 92. And most recently he did a nice interview about Facing McEnroe. Martina was harder to get, she gave me the "you have to go through the proper channels" line when I approached her for a spontaneous interview a few years ago.

She's probably felt bitten by impromptu interviews! She's mentioned how we talk a good game about free speech, but some writers have turned it on her and made her to feel unwelcomed as a naturalized citizen! She's not allowed to always give her opinion due to those people you mentioned who have an agenda and can't be trusted to be fair! I don't blame her! I still remember the snide attitudes of some back in the 70's & 80's! It was quite despicable and offensive at times! They made it seem like big ol' strong lesbian was beating up on little Chrissie! Even though they were friends, Evert didn't do much about it since she was being generously endorsed and didn't want to seem political! :cuckoo: :spank2:

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Shapovalov shows a photo on IG of himself as a very young boy with Max Mirnyi at IMG and they trained together this offeason and so they took a new photo together and matched it with the original photo from probably ten years ago.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Hartt, email it to me and I will post it here too. scoop.malinowski@yahoo.com

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Hartt; Control C to copy, Control V to paste!

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

I never heard of Peter Palandjian but I do know Peter Polansky and Peter Popovic.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Felix and Denis are very close now and they make it very clear publicly, with all their social media posts that each other comment positively immediately on. So if a divide does crop up eventually or inevitably it will be very clear for the public to sense it. I think this is one of the most intriguing aspects of this unique dynamic - will these two future kings be able to share the crown? And how will one react if the other shows a distinct superiority? It certainly is a new and unique situation developing and how the drama plays out will intrigue the tennis world. Courier and Sampras were not able to maintain their friendship through their super intense battles. They mutually agreed to go their separate ways.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Hartt; It's curious that they did not train together in the off season but I guess the Roger invitation prevented that, Pospisil trained in Kenya with Schuettler.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Not sure why no pics in the comments section, my guess is that the program we are using is maybe outdated and doesn't allow it.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Bobby, It's a good question why Lendl extended a helping hand to Sampras, maybe he privately did not believe Pete would make it big - like Wilander's first impression - and used him for the explosive hitting. Or maybe Lendl just was a generous guy and saw big potential in Pete and wanted to help out, even though it probably cost him a US Open title in 1990. Steve Flink is a big Pete Sampras expert, he probably knows the answer.

 

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Scoop Malinowski writes:

Sudden departure by Novotna. Sounds like she had enough of the grind and just wanted it to end. Wonder if she enjoyed to play tennis in retirement. A Czech guy I played with last year a lot told me she had to leave Florida a few years ago because she was having money problems. He always had the inside info about the Czech players.