"You Can Quote Me on That"

I just got this in the mail today and it's pretty great. Here's Ivan Lendl  on John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors in 1987:

"I think Connors believes he has to hate everybody he plays [in order]  to play better, and McEnroe hates just about everyone who can beat him. He used to hate Jimmy Connors and me. Now he has to hate the top 50."

Ouch. Man, I miss the days of smack-talking tennis! I think I'll post a good quote every couple days.

Check out author Paul Fein's site www.tennisquotes.com for more info about the book and to get an autographed copy!

Have You Seen 'The French'?

Have you heard of photographer- filmmaker Willam Klein's documentary of the 1981 French Open, "The French"? It sounds like a classic and is available on DVD from ARTE Boutique. (Here are some stills and French audio commentary from Klein). Factoid: Klein turned down an offer to do a documentary of the Rolling Stones for this.

Here's a little of what Large at the No Mas blog has to say about the film:

For those of us obsessed with the huge tennis stars of the 70’s and 80’s (meaning just about every tennis fan on the face of the earth) it is essential viewing, just for what intimate access you get into the players offcourt universe in a Grand Slam setting.

Here are the conclusions I drew from this film:
Borg was the coolest motherfucker of all time. He was a cross between Humphrey Bogart, a Swedish porn star and a lazy but talented leopard. He cared little about tennis even though he was the greatest player of his era ...

Nastase was fucking hilarious. There’s a great scene where during a rain delay he’s got Chris Evert and Hana Mandlikova laughing like schoolgirls while he flashes his buttcrack at them in the clubhouse.

He has even got a picture of the Ivory Coast (!) Borg stamp, and impressions of McEnroe, Lendl, and Noah.

Here's the whole review.

Also, does anyone know who the very pretty boy in the last photo here is?

Ivan Lendl Interview

Ivan Lendl, along with Maureen Connolly, was inducted into the U.S. Open Court of Champions before the men's final yesterday.  To go along with the occasion he did a fairly lengthy press conference with the media.

The atmosphere was completely different from during his playing days - very friendly with Lendl even joking with the media.  Some highlights:

• After Serena Williams received an apology from the U.S. Open officials for the missed call in her match with Jennifer Capriati last year, Lendl called up a frend of his at the U.S. Open and demanded to know, "What about an apology for my call in 1991?"
• He played tennis for the first time in nine years three weeks ago - and then only because he auctioned off an hour of his time on court for charity.
• Lendl speculates on what his former coach Tony Roche may be working on with current pupil Roger Federer:

"Tony was ‑‑ we never really worked on any technique too much ‑ very little, if any. But Tony was fantastic at getting my feet going well. He always was concerned about my rhythm and timing of my feet. As I just said, when I moved well, you can't ‑‑ you know it better than anyone, if you don't get to the shot, I don't care how good you are, you can't hit it properly.

"And I'm sure he's doing the same thing with Roger; we never discuss it, what he does with Roger, because it's none of my business, that's between the two of them and I don't want to get involved."

Ivan Lendl Update

From the sounds of it, the name Lendl will no longer be synonymous with tennis.

First this week came the news that Ivan Lendl came up short in his attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open in golf. 

Now the Roanoke Times has a feature on one of one of Ivan's daughters, Marika, 15, as she attempts to win her second consecutive Scott Robertson Memorial golf tournament.  The article also mentions her 13-year-old sister Isabelle as quite a gifted junior golfer. 

A quick google search actually turned up this fan site that follows the Lendl family's golfing accomplishments.