Lendl denied a trainer, retires at '94 USO

[Moose Malloy]

hadn't seen this before, tough way to go out in what would turn out to be the last match of his career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D4MA...feature=relmfu

Q. Ivan, can you just go through the process of the finish, because you had a couple of conversations with Ken Ferreira and Brian Earley and had to stop what exactly was going?

IVAN LENDL: I asked for the trainer, he says, "Okay, I am going to call him," and--

Q. At what stage was that?

IVAN LENDL: After the second set. And he says you can have him on the next changeover. I can't give you injury time out because it is preexisting injury, which, you know, I don't really agree with, because it is aggravated injury, but I guess it is a true interpretation, the trainer thinks something else -- so you can have treatment on the next changeover, we got to the next one and my back is stiffening up more, and they called time, I said, "Wait a second, I am waiting for the trainer." He said, "I can have him on the next changeover," and they said, "yeah." But he didn't get here, and so he got to go and play. At that stage I couldn't really play properly, and they said, "We can't wait." I said, "Well, I am sorry, I can't play." That was it. There were some communication problem because they said they called the trainer's room and nobody answer, but the trainer said nobody called. So there were four of them there.

You can see the exchange in the link above.

Apparently Lendl had 9 set points in the 2nd (& a 5-0 lead) Retired
down 6-4, 7-6, 1-0. In front of like 100 people.
Guess not every all time great gets to end their career like an Agassi, Edberg(a packed stadium etc)

[scotus]

Originally Posted by Moose Malloy

hadn't seen this before, tough way to go out in what would turn out to be the last match of his career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D4MA...feature=relmfu



You can see the exchange in the link above.

Apparently Lendl had 9 set points in the 2nd (& a 5-0 lead) Retired
down 6-4, 7-6, 1-0. In front of like 100 people.
Guess not every all time great gets to end their career like an Agassi, Edberg(a packed stadium etc)

Do you have a link to Edberg's retirement match? Would love to see that.

[Mustard]

Lendl blowing a 5-0 second set lead and 9 sets points in his last ever match against Bernd Karbacher, is pretty legendary. I watched it on Sky Sports at the time, when Andrew Castle was presenter. Karbacher went on to reach the quarter finals of the tournament, losing to Todd Martin. Lendl announced his retirement in December 1994 due to his persistent back problems and he disappeared from the tennis world for years. The truth be told, Lendl had been a shadow of himself for nearly 2 years before his retirement, with some bad losses in the majors to guys like Bergstrom, Huet, Boetsch (twice), Borwick and of course, Karbacher. All of these losses came in the first or second round.

I think the first signs of Lendl's decline started back at 1991 Wimbledon, when David Wheaton beat him. That was Lendl's earliest exit at a major he had played in for exactly 10 years, since Charlie Fancutt beat him at 1981 Wimbledon. Lendl had plenty of tough early round matches at Wimbledon for years, but he'd always pull them out, but in 1991, after coming back from 2 sets down to beat MaliVai Washington, he couldn't survive the tough match against Wheaton.

[Great Uncle Bulgaria]

Personally, I have always felt that not being able to win Wimbledon in 1990 (after he skipped the French to prepare) finished him off mentally. Also I think he had family responsibilties as well by then.

[timnz]

Originally Posted by Great Uncle Bulgaria

Personally, I have always felt that not being able to win Wimbledon in 1990 (after he skipped the French to prepare) finished him off mentally. Also I think he had family responsibilties as well by then.

Can't agree at all. He made the Australian Open final in 1991 and a very good indoor season in the early part of that year - I recall he beat Sampras in Philly in the final. He had had surgery later than year on his hand. His back issues started to raise themselves in 1992. The odd times his back wasn't acting up he played really well like in the Japan indoor in late 92 and 93.

Basically it was his back that caused his downfall both in shortening his preparation for tournaments and at times hampering his performances at those tournaments.

[ramos77]

I thought his career started going downhill when he switched to Mizuno..

Such a shame he had to go like that in front of a poor crowd.

Hated him at the time, but I've grown to love him, he was just mis-understood

[kiki]

" You are not man enough to have a boy instead of a girl ? " ( Lendl to a recent father peer before becoming father himself of 5 consecutive...girls)