Pause, rewind, play: Ivan Lendl, the man who dragged men’s tennis into the modern age

“I have more talent in my little finger than he has in his entire body,” John McEnroe once said of Ivan Lendl, the rival he loved to hate.

The comment was typically brattish but to be fair, many would have agreed with McEnroe. The American had perhaps the best hands on the tour and he would routinely conjure up shots that others could merely dream about. But Lendl, nicknamed ‘Ivan The Terrible’ in his early years, went on to show the sports world that talent isn’t everything.

‘’I had to change my game, raise the level of play against someone like McEnroe,’’ Lendl told The NY Times in 1986. ‘’It was frustrating sometimes because you are working hard and it is not going well. I wished I could have as much success as McEnroe.’’

The duo ended up playing each other 36 times over a decade-long rivalry. And while McEnroe had the edge in the early years, by the end, Lendl’s domination was complete.