Did Lendl dominate Becker

[Angrybirdstar]

In the sense that he lost to Becker at the slams and it was VERY clear that he was psyched out by Becker. Becker wasn't always winning those matches through superior game but because Lendl, would get very tight playing Becker. He had trouble hitting out, serving well etc. The bottom line was that he was somewhat intimidated by Becker, something he was used to doing to other players. In that sense, one could still see the mentally weak Lendl of his early days.

some more brilliant Datacipher insight... continuing to not beat the weak era poster allegations

 

[ChrisRF]

This is why H2Hs have to be taken with a grain of salt unless it's a big enough sample across a reasonable period of time and with relatively good surface distribution.

Fully agree. It's strange that most of the time a thread about a player dominating another one is about H2H. In reality this alone means nothing, because you dominate someone by winning more big tournaments or finish on top of the other in the ranking.

Otherwise one could say Nadal dominated Federer in 2006, which would be an absurd thought.

 

[GuyForget]

err Fed beat Nadal at Wimbledon + YEC in '06. But Nadal did dominate him from 07-16 when it mattered, like Becker did Lendl from 86-91 (USO89 and AO91 final surfaces favoured Lendl), one could also say Cash dominated Lendl when it mattered in the late 80s (W87, AO87, AO88, also huge+ v painful losses for Lendl that stopped him being on a par with Borg)

 

[Hard Court]

The surfaces did not "favor" Lendl at the Australian Open and the U.S. Open. Becker won fair square and should be given credit for it. But the surface was fair to both players. Good point about Cash. He gave Lendl trouble. He almost beat him at the 1984 U.S. Open SF as well.