It was about a decade ago that Ivan Lendl often spent a whole season in a travelling circus. However, the travels of the former world number one had nothing to do with tennis, Lendl drove his golfing daughters Marika and Isabelle all over America.
“I was the best chauffeur you could have imagined,” says the 58-year-old, “but also the advisor and sorrow box when there were problems.” Only once a year Lendl visited tennis regularly, travelled to the US Open for a day or two, talked to former companions like John McEnroe, Mats Wilander or Jimmy Connors.
After that Lendl disappeared from the tennis world without a trace, it didn’t push him into a job in the industry either: “I never wanted to continue playing tennis just like that. As a commentator, agent or trainer. I was glad to have some distance.” And to be able to look after his children, not only the two female golfers, but also three other daughters who were rowing or eventing.
But if you look around the Billie Jean King Tennis Center these days, the venue of the US Open in Flushing Meadows, if you study the newspapers and social media, you cannot ignore Lendl’s remarkable presence.
Six and a half years after his first comeback in tennis, when he was head coach of British star Andy Murray, Lendl took on his second major and spectacular coaching mission – now as an influential instructor for the German young star Alexander Zverev. The 21-year-old from Hamburg is not yet under as much pressure as Murray, who, in his mid-twenties, had serious doubts about not being able to use his talents profitably.
But in 2018, but in the tennis scene in general, everything is spinning much faster and faster than ever before, and impatience towards players like Zverev has also grown considerably. Zverev hasn’t really got close to the important titles yet, his best result so far was reaching the quarter-finals at the French Open this spring.
Lendl must and should therefore judge it now and correct the German’s deficit in the results of the major competitions. With Lendl he wanted to take the “next step” and hit the big stages, says Zverev: “Ivan’s success with Andy was of course an important argument. And also the fact that Lendl has a flawless image, without scandal or affair, unlike the candidate Boris Becker, who was also considered.
Lendl is not afraid of serious challenges. Neither as a player nor as a coach. During his active time he established a new professionalism in world tennis, a new work ethic in the nomadic business of professional players. Lendl was so fit, so tough, so persistent as no other in the scene, he won eight Grand Slam titles, stood 270 weeks at the top of the world rankings, acquired the half mocking, half respectful nickname “Ivan the Terrible”.
Only Wimbledon remained an eternal mystery for him, he never won there, after one of his countless failed attempts at the All England Club he said the famous sentence: “Grass is for cows”. Otherwise, however, he won everywhere, on all continents, on all surfaces, he almost always made the maximum possible, unlike many more talented players.
Lendl was also a master of tactics, the adversary watch, one who sharply dissected the weaknesses of his rivals. The stoic character of the naturalized American drove some to whiteness, one only has to ask a certain John McEnroe.
Britain’s long-standing hopeful Andy Murray has benefited twice from Lendl’s expertise. Only from January 2012 to March 2014, at a time when Murray became Olympic champion in London and then also ended the almost eternal drought of the domestic stars in Wimbledon.
And then again in 2016, when Lendl was recalled by Murray as coach in distress and managed the feat of winning the US Open and the ATP World Championship with the Scot Wimbledon, thus also taking first place in the world rankings.
Lendl’s greatest merit, at both work intervals: To make Murray’s game more structured, to contain his hot-headedness and his temper. “He calmed me down as a gambler. He was a firm authority,” says Murray about the former companion, who watched motionlessly like a Buddha and with a mostly grim look in the gallery.
This will now also be the task of the passionate art collector Lendl at Zverev – as a recognized, accepted conductor to ensure that the young German’s playing becomes even more coherent, consistent and also compelling in decisive tennis situations, i.e. at the Grand Slams.
And also, just like Murray, to eliminate the occasional undiscipline of his employer with all due severity. Zverev should be completely focused on tennis and keep away from side wars, for example from unproductive discussions with referees or line judges or skirmishes with his opponents.
When Lendl was once engaged by Murray, he also made a not insignificant promise: “He knows that he is now even more in the spotlight, that this is a big deal – Murray and Lendl. I try to keep as much away from him as possible. I’m distracting attention.”
That’s all Pokerface Lendl will do for Zverev now, as a big, oversized shield. “I wish I could help him reach the highest goal,” says Lendl, “Sasha has the potential.”