Background and career
Ivan Lendl (Czech: [ˈɪvan ˈlɛndl̩]; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech–American former professional tennis player and coach. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 270 weeks (fourth-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 four times. Lendl won 94 career singles titles, including eight majors (three each at the French Open and US Open, and two at the Australian Open) and seven year-end championships. He was runner-up at a further eleven majors, for a total of 19 major finals (among which a record eight consecutive US Open finals). Lendl is the only man in professional tennis history to have a match winning percentage of over 90% in five different years (1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1989). He leads the head-to-head against his two biggest rivals, with a 22–13 record against Jimmy Connors and a 21–15 record against John McEnroe. Lendl's dominance of his era was most evident at the year-end championships, where he holds a win–loss record of 39–10 and contested the final a record nine consecutive times. Commonly referred to as the "Father Of Modern Tennis" and "The Father of the Inside-Out Forehand", Lendl pioneered a new style of tennis; his game was built around his forehand, hit hard and with a heavy topspin, and his success is cited as a primary influence in popularizing the now-common playing style of aggressive baseline power tennis. After retirement, he became a tennis coach for several players; in particular, he helped Andy Murray win three majors and reach the world No. 1 ranking.
Lendl was born into a tennis family in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He was the only child of Jiří, a lawyer and former tennis player who was ranked number 15 in Czechoslovakia, and Olga, born Jeništová, who was at one point ranked the number 2 female player in the country. He began playing at the age of three (initially using a paddle to hit a ball against a wall before progressing to play with his father). By the age of 14 he defeated his mother. Lendl first came to the tennis world's attention as a junior player. In 1978, he won the boys' singles titles at the Italian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon and was the world No. 1-ranked junior player.
Lendl turned professional in 1978 and ended the year ranked 74. After reaching his first top-level singles final in 1979, he won seven singles titles in 1980, including three tournament wins in three consecutive weeks. At the 1980 US Open, Lendl, seeded 10, allowed seventh seed Harold Solomon just one game in their fourth round match. In the quarter finals, McEnroe's full repertoire of on-court "antics" was on display as he beat Lendl in four sets. This was the first Lendl–McEnroe Grand Slam meeting and Lendl's first Grand Slam quarter final. Lendl was part of Czechoslovakia's Davis Cup winning team in 1980 and was undefeated in singles that year. However, he stopped playing in the Davis Cup and World Team Cup after he moved to the United States in 1986 because the Czechoslovak Tennis Association viewed him as an "illegal defector" from their country.
The success continued in 1981, as he won ten titles. He reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open in 1981, where he lost in five sets to Björn Borg. At Wimbledon he was "outserved" by Charlie Fancutt in the first round in five sets. At the US Open, Lendl lost in the fourth round in five sets to Vitas Gerulaitis. Gerulaitis often rushed the net to win the first two sets, but reverted to a baseline game in losing the next two and resumed his net rushing tactics in the fifth. He won his first season-ending Masters Grand Prix tour title, coming from 2 sets to 0 and match point down to beat Gerulaitis in five sets in the final. Lendl was part of the Czechoslovak team that won the World Team Cup. He relocated to the United States in 1981, first living at the home of mentor and friend, Wojtek Fibak.
In 1982, Lendl won 15 of the 23 singles tournaments he entered and had a 44-match winning streak. Lendl competed on the World Championship Tennis (WCT) tour, where he won all ten tournaments he entered, including his first WCT Finals, where he defeated John McEnroe in straight sets. Lendl faced McEnroe again in the Masters Grand Prix final and won in straight sets to claim his second season-ending championship. In an era when tournament prize money was rising sharply due to the competition between two circuits (Grand Prix and WCT), Lendl's title victories quickly made him the highest-earning tennis player of all time. At the French Open, Lendl lost to Mats Wilander in five sets in the fourth round. "I was missing a little the timing on my forehand and it was difficult for me to play without it. I did my best and I was trying hard but I was outplayed" said Lendl afterwards. Lendl reached his first US Open final in 1982, beating McEnroe in the semi finals in straight sets. Lendl was "in peak form, finding the corners and the lines with his ferocious forehand and making infrequent but successful forays to the net". He was defeated in four sets in the final by Jimmy Connors, not being able to cope "with Connors' penetrating, sharply-angled groundstrokes into the corners, or his net-charging attacks".
Lendl won another seven tournaments in 1983; however, he had not won any Grand Slam titles in the early years of his career. He lost in the quarter finals of the French Open in four sets to eventual winner Yannick Noah, which "produced some of the best tennis of the tournament" to that point. He lost in the Wimbledon semi finals to John McEnroe in straight sets; "McEnroe's serve, depending more on placement and spin rather than brute strength, was more effective" than Lendl's. He was the runner-up at the US Open (losing in four sets to Connors). and Australian Open (losing in straight sets to Mats Wilander; the fourth time he had lost a Grand Slam singles final). In July 1983, Lendl played three exhibition matches (against Johan Kriek, Kevin Curren, and Jimmy Connors) in Sun City, South Africa, in the apartheid-era bantustan of Bophuthatswana. The Czechoslovak Sport Federation (ČSTV), controlled by the Communist Party, expelled him from the Czechoslovak Davis Cup team and fined him $150,000. Lendl disputed the punishment and the fine.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
