Monday, December 01, 2008

Where is Ivan Lendl?

My first memory of tennis is watching a dowdy, unattractive Czech play against a fiery young Blonde on the pristine grass of Wimbledon. It needed no deep knowledge of tennis to guess that the Czech wanted to win, BADLY (Im not sure if Lendl's famous grass-is-for-cows had been declared just before this battle). But even my 10 yr old untrained brain could somehow figure out that the dashing blonde would prevail. It was the summer of 86 - the year that Boris Becker became the youngest male title holder at Wimbledon. A strange presentiment told me that Lendl would never win at Wimbledon. And I think he knew it too.

I've been hooked to tennis since then. Through the years, I have frowned upon plodders like Lendl & Courier, saving my adulation instead for the breathtaking brilliance of an Edberg, an Agassi or a Federer. Now, I have much more respect for Lendl's tenacity and ambition.

I guess I'm growing up.