To begin with, in 1981-1982 Lendl was already winning pretty much everything he entered except the majors. 10 titles in 1981. As for 1982, he entered 23 tournaments, reach 20 finals, and won 15 of them. I am not aware of any other player in the open era with a year like that.
Final atp rankings for 1982:
1.McEnroe
2.Connors
3.Lendl
final grand prix race points(probably the more accurate ranking of the time)
1. Connors 3355
2. Vilas 2495
3. Lendl 2313
4. McEnroe 2305
Regardless of how many titles Lendl won in 1982, most were pretty minor(its kinda like Muster in '95, he won more titles than Sampras & Agassi combined that year, yet still finished #3)
Implying that Lendl of '82 was anywhere near the level of the Lendl of '86, is pretty absurd. He was not in the same ballpark as far as 'quality' wins(not just talking slams here, his '82 was filled with tournamts lacking many of the top players) as in '86.
Connors' year was clearly way above Lendl that year regardless of his winning half the tournaments that Lendl did that year. Lendl played a lot in '81/'82/'83, he was like Davydenko. Connors & Mac played far less.
Plus as sandy mentioned, Wimbledon was so far ahead of the other slams in the 80s, & Lendl skipped it in '82. I think using his head to head vs Mac that year to argue he was his equal is a little misleading, considering his performaces in the big events that year.
one other thing about lendl(since we compare accomplishments so often here)
he is on record as saying he would give up all his FOs & at least 2 of his us opens for one wimbledon. that shows how far ahead wimbledon was compared to the other majors in the 80s. I can't imagine anyone today blatantly putting down some of the majors that they won the way lendl did(which is to his credit) & being that honest(Agassi never puts down his AO titles, but I'd bet anything he'd give up 1 or 2 or more of them for one more W or US title) and his comments also show that the 'career slam' or all surface excellence wasn't considered as important in the 80s. basically it was all about w & the us open.
The lack of a wimbledon title is a major blemish in comparing Lendl to Connors or Mac, which even his own comments prove. And Lendl lost to Leconte early
in '85 Wimbledon. Mac didn't play in '86 Wimbledon, Lendl making the final that year may have been helped by him knowing that he knew he wouldn't have to deal with the best grasscourt player of that era. Mac was a very close #2 to Lendl at the end of '85, I doubt anyone on the planet talking about '86 at the end of '85 would have given Lendl any chance of beating him at Wimbledon '86, if they played. But then Mac took 6 months off...
Lendl at his peak was a great player(probably better than anyone sampras faced) but he did take advantage of a lull at the top in his peak years(which many all time greats did, like Sampras, or Connors in '74, even Fed to some degree-until Nadal showed up)
He came back from sabatical and didn't do that badly, stayed in the top 10 for over three years, made it all the way to number 4 in 1989, but never could really bother Lendl or the top 3 players again, even though he tried harder during this period than he had in his pre-1985 years. I used to read tennis magazines in the late 80s and a very common story was Mac's new training strategies, a new one every 6 months or so, to make it back to number 1. He even trained with weights at some point. At some point he hired Peter Flemming as a manager, while working with long-time coach Palafox. It all produced some good results, mind you, but not the main objective: to be number one again. The notion that he "semi-retired" after 1985 is groundless and demonstrably false
he dropped out of the top 10 many times during that time. & was suspended more than he ever was during his prime as well. whatever tennis magazine said about his dedictaion to the game may not be the whole story.
Regardless of how hard Mac trained post '85, Lendl & many others said he wasn't the same player, didn't have the same movement or pace on his serve after '85. and mac wasn't playing a full schedule post '85(by his standards)
had a very troubled marriage, kids, drug problems, etc. I don't see how anyone could say his head was in the game the same as it was it was pre '85.
If even Lendl admits Mac declined post '85, why can't you? And it wasn't like mac was even playing lendl a lot post '85, he was losing to low ranked guys like annacone, masur, etc, guys that he was beating pre '85, so its a bit misleading to say, he just couldn't handle lendl anymore, he couldn't handle lots of guys, which shows how dedicated to the game he was(the guy skipped Wimbledon in '86 & '87, he valued that event so much more than any other, if that doesn't show he lost interest in the game, I don't know what does?)
You can't dismiss what Lendl himself said about Mac post '85(& its not like those 2 are buddies or anything, if Lendl wanted to elevate his own career he could have said in '87,"John is still as good as he was in '84, I'm just so much better now," which he didn't, he just told the truth, that mac was washed up, slow, etc. And Lendl could have tried to argue that the French was the equal of Wimbledon in the 80s(which many players today argue) since he was so great on clay or say that Australia was the equal of the US Open in the late 80s. He didn't. Very straight shooter, that Lendl, was the "Truth" as snoop said.
Lendl's taking the number one spot at the 85 US open, and keeping it, may be precisely what sent Mac into a sabatical
interesting what the "race" standings were as of November '85.
1 McEnroe 3903
2. Lendl 3808
mac went on sabatical after losing to gilbert in the masters, not after losing to lendl at the open.
Lend's peak is more difficult to pinpoint, since he was so much more consistent, but in terms of completely focused flawless tennis, his performances at the Masters in 86 and 87 are way up there among the best tennis every played by anyone.
I saw his masters final of '86(december) recently, it seemed like it was more about how poorly becker played than how well lendl played. stolle, drysdale, laver were doing commentary & agreed. lots of errors by boris that day.