Medusa Painting by Caravaggio

Ivan Lendl was born in Czechoslovakia on March7, 1960. His mother Olga was also a good tennis player. Lendl started taking part in tennis tournaments from the young age of 8. He was the junior champion of Czechoslovakia during 1975-78. He won the European Junior Championship title in 1976 and the Orange Bowl championship in 1977. He became Wimbledon Junior champion in 1978 and also won the Junior World Championship in the same year.

In 1980, Ivan won the Davis Cup for his country and won many Grand Prix tournaments in 1981. He became the top tennis player after the eclipse of Borg and McEnroe. Ivan Lendl has been very unfortunate in one respect. Like Iili Nastase, he has never won the singles title at Wimbledon. During the last decade he reached the final and semi-final of this prestigious tournament, but the title always eluded him.