US OPEN

September 11, 2005

Ivan Lendl

IVAN LENDL: Probably not (laughter).

IVAN LENDL: Yeah, that is a true story (laughing).

IVAN LENDL: I was kidding, yes. But I found it very strange.

IVAN LENDL: I got bad calls every match, and I never got an apology. So I thought it was rather strange.

IVAN LENDL: Oh, I called Jim Curley just to bust his chops a little bit. I figured he just works too hard, doesn't laugh very much during these weeks, so I figured I'd give him something to chuckle about.

IVAN LENDL: Oh, yeah, he always does. We know each other for a long time, so...

IVAN LENDL: Nice shirt.

IVAN LENDL: Color suits you well.

IVAN LENDL: Well, obviously, it's great honor. I mean, this is a tournament I have always played well at, and probably my best Grand Slam. So it's great honor, and looking forward to it.

IVAN LENDL: I'm sorry?

IVAN LENDL: I don't really know. I never think about it too much. And people always say, well, when I beat John at the French Open in '84, is that the best moment? I say, no, it's not, and it's not the worst either, of course. I always say each Grand Slam for the first time is more special than the others. I'm not going to put US Open above the Australian or the French above the US Open. I'm not going to do one or the other. Every time I won the Grand Slam for the first time, it's more special than the others, and the ones behind that were not too shabby either. They were very enjoyable.

IVAN LENDL: Well, it's phenomenal, of course. You know, you can sit down and think about why, but why bother with it? It's just fantastic. He's a great player. He is hitting the ball extremely well. Hopefully he has a lot more left in him.

IVAN LENDL: That's why you guys are here.

IVAN LENDL: I think if you look at Andre then and now, you look at two different models. Of course it's personal preference, I think Andre now is a great role model for the kids. He has started training differently than he was before, and so on and so on. As I said, he's phenomenal, fantastic.

IVAN LENDL: I believe so.

IVAN LENDL: I believe so, yes.

IVAN LENDL: He's certainly - how would I put it? - he's certainly right up there. You could look at some other players who were extremely talented, but I think you have to -- you can very safely say he's one of the most talented players who is producing the wins which are expected of those talented players. Because there were some talented players and they never produced, in terms of records, what he's producing right now. Clearly, I think the popular opinion is he's not done with what he's doing (smiling).

IVAN LENDL: I have never seen him play. I don't know much about him, but from the results, I think it could be quite interesting to see over the next few years between Federer and Nadal and maybe Roddick, Hewitt, Safin and so on and so on. But I think he's going to be tough to beat on clay over the next few years.

IVAN LENDL: I saw part of the matches, the semis of the French and the finals of Key Biscayne.

IVAN LENDL: I'm sorry?

IVAN LENDL: Oh, Blake's comeback. I thought you were talking about mine, wow (laughing). It was scary thought. Again, I think it's great. I think to overcome adversity like that, many times you come back better. It's great that he's back and playing well.

IVAN LENDL: Well, I don't, from Italy, you should know, it's Czech Republic and Slovakia. There's two countries now.

IVAN LENDL: Yeah, every now and then. I haven't been back in a while. I have not been back in about four years. It just gets very difficult with the kids' golf schedules during the summer. I just travel all the time. And I was just looking at the schedules now and starting the first week of October I will be every weekend with somebody at tournaments through Christmas. So it gets very difficult to just go away and not do that.

IVAN LENDL: Well, which one?

IVAN LENDL: Well, they all have certain talents. You know, if you talk about hands, that's one talent. Hard work is talent as well. I think they all have certain talents. It's just the question is how can you calculate it and produce -- or make it come out so they can produce the best results with what they have.

IVAN LENDL: I don't know. They still haven't beaten me from the same tees.

IVAN LENDL: Hi, Cindy. I saw somebody who knew you the other day. Somebody said they knew Cindy Schmerler; I turned around and ran (laughter).

IVAN LENDL: They don't play any tennis, that's the easy part. I don't know, it's hard to tell. They tell me they want to be the best, so I try to show them what it takes. That's all. And sometimes you have to use your judgment, sometimes you step down hard, and sometimes you just let something go because you think the time for it isn't right so...

IVAN LENDL: No. Because if you wanted to do that, you would have to be on the court against him to feel that ball. It's very easy to sit back and say, well, you could have done this, you could have done that. Unless you have been on that court and feel how that balls feels coming to you off the serve, off the forehand, how low the backhand stays and how hard it is to recognize where he is going with the shots, you should really not be making those comparisons.

IVAN LENDL: Well, I don't see any glaring weaknesses, let's put it that way. But to be fair, if you take players from my era to now, the game has changed and the players have many more shots. They use them differently than we did. The speed of the game has changed. Stamina is not as big of a factor as quickness and strength right now because the points are much shorter, whether it is because the boys are bigger and stronger or it is because the balls and racquets; you can argue that for as long as you want. So there are -- the players are more complete players now than they were 20 years ago, there's no question about that.

IVAN LENDL: Well, I didn't -- I wouldn't say I had problems in Grand Slam finals; I had problems, period, with certain players. I had trouble beating John at that time. I was way down in the matches with Jimmy. So what I did is I sat down and looked at it and says, "What do I need to do to get better so I can overtake them?" I was between 2 and 3 in the world for two, three years. That's not exactly where I wanted to be. So in order to get better, you have to figure out how you're going to get better. So I worked on that and I took care of it.

IVAN LENDL: Well, quickness. Mainly quickness. Because in order to beat Jimmy, I had to get around the ball a little bit quicker so I wasn't always on defensive and catching the ball on last stride, that I had little more time. Once I was able to get little bit quicker, then it has helped me a lot.

IVAN LENDL: I played first time in nine years about three weeks ago.

IVAN LENDL: Was interesting (smiling).

IVAN LENDL: I auctioned an hour of my time for a charity.

IVAN LENDL: That was the only reason I played, yes.

IVAN LENDL: Well, I think 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 so he was concerned about me being in good position so I can hit any shot I choose to hit at that time from what I had. 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. But he is fantastic at that. He just has the feel, how much you should move, if your timing is right, and so on and so on. He was great at preparing me for the majors.

IVAN LENDL: Did I say that?

IVAN LENDL: Oh, you're saying that.

IVAN LENDL: I think talent is dangerous to have if you take it for granted. If you use it well and put hard work with it together, it's hard to catch that guy. And I think that's what you're seeing right now. Just like you can talk about Tiger Woods, how much talent he has and how much work he puts into it, and he's tough to beat. Same thing with Roger.

IVAN LENDL: You didn't like that (laughter)?

IVAN LENDL: Well, actually, there are few things that I remember about that tie. Obviously, winning. My friendship with Jose Luis. We came there, it was really cold, he brought us jackets. A really good, nice gesture on his part. Funny people never talk about that, I think that was -- certainly early on it was one of my biggest achievements, and it may have stayed that way because I had never beaten either Guillermo or Jose Luis. To beat them in Argentina at that tie for the first time, it was very special. It was certainly unexpected. I always think very sort of fondly of that tie.

IVAN LENDL: Well, I don't know how good Yevgeny is. I saw the scores from the Moscow Open. But it's very difficult, I can tell you - I played the Czech Open a few times - and it's very difficult just to go on to a scene where the course is prepared differently - when the greens are fast and he's not used to it and they're hard as a rock and he's not used to it. So I have seen the scores. I wouldn't say I'm better than him because I know how difficult that is, and if you not used to it, your scores go up by seven, ten shots just like that because of the conditions of the golf course. But there is easy way to find out, isn't there (smiling)? I'm still competitive, I promise that.

IVAN LENDL: Well, again, that was just the tie in Argentina. It was a little unexpected because I was clearly the underdog to John at that time. He has beaten me twice that summer. He was ahead in the first set, had a set point. I was able to save that set point, I believe, with a passing shot. And then take the match. And two things I remember from that: A, that it was little bit unexpected, and, B, once I got a first set and a break, how great I felt on the court. I felt like I was really sort of flowing on the court. It's a feeling which everybody strives for and it's extremely difficult to get at all times. You can get a certain extent of it. But that day it was right up there.

IVAN LENDL: Yeah, you get into, you want to call it a zone or whatever, or subzone, below that, you can get into the subzone a lot. To get into the zone fully, it's very special on any given day. I have done that few times. But to get into the zone on a big occasion is truly special. That day certainly was it, especially after the first half of the first set.

IVAN LENDL: I still remember some. I try to forget some of them, I promise. Your buddy Camporese still probably remembers I had two matchpoint on him in Rotterdam, and I didn't like losing that. But I remember some. Some of them slip.

IVAN LENDL: No, I don't remember that one, no.

IVAN LENDL: But thank you (smiling).

IVAN LENDL: No, the games are so different and the times are different. You know, you just go out there, do your best. Sometimes it's good enough and sometimes it is, and sometimes it stays your only one and sometimes you win bunch others behind it. Many times the players get in there and it's just about as well as they could have done, and other times they get in there and they favorites and they don't win. So I don't know what her situation was in terms of should she have won more or not, that's hard to judge. But let's see what happens in the future.

IVAN LENDL: Oh, absolutely. As I said, it's the Grand Slam where I probably had the best record and from all the four Grand Slams for me. It's great honor.

IVAN LENDL: It must be natural for him, yes. I know I couldn't do it. I just couldn't sit that long. It just would drive me crazy. But John does a great job on television. I think he is one of the very few guys who really see the match out there the way it is. As long as he enjoys it, that's all what counts.

IVAN LENDL: Are they allowed to move from side to side (referring to the journalists)? (Laughter).

IVAN LENDL: I have no humor, so disregard that.

IVAN LENDL: I'm not sure where you're heading with that, with his --

IVAN LENDL: As I said earlier, yes, I think he has worked on his game, he has worked on his fitness, and he is a great role model. It's great to see that he's still playing well, yes.

IVAN LENDL: Good question. I'm sorry, I have no idea (smiling).

IVAN LENDL: This year?

IVAN LENDL: Oh, okay.

IVAN LENDL: Actually, you will be surprised. I don't lose any sleep over that. I don't make a habit of watching tennis matches, but I try to watch all the major finals. I try to make time for that. So unless I have something going with the kids where I can't, I try to watch, and I enjoy that. You see, I think the point -- two points I should really make is when I'm saying that, that this tournament is probably the best record among the four Grand Slams I have had, the reason I'm saying that is because in England, getting to finals twice and semis on five other occasions, it was much harder for me than winning here. And so, you know, yes, I would have liked to won. No, I don't lose any sleep over it. And, yes, I'm very proud of the record.

IVAN LENDL: Well, I think they're tough competitors, from very little I have seen on them, of them. You don't get to be where they are by not being great players either, so they're great players, great competitors. I'm sorry, that's about all I know. They play right-handed (smiling).

IVAN LENDL: Such as? Such as? Sitting by the mall smoking (smiling)?

IVAN LENDL: A lot.

IVAN LENDL: Yes, well, I think you have to give them their freedom as well. If you go to school and practice for five days a week, it still gives you two days you can go and see your friends, you can go to the movies, you do whatever you like to do. I'm certainly not sorry that there were some things I missed. You may think you're missing something at that time but later when you look at it, you didn't miss anything.

IVAN LENDL: I think you're right of whatever year that was. I think that may have been '89 or '88, I'm not sure.

IVAN LENDL: '89, I was two sets to one up and had a break, I think. That's the year you're talking about?

IVAN LENDL: Yes, I think that was. But, again, to say that, it's little bit unfair to Stefan. Because, you know, when you say that, it almost sounds like saying, "Yeah, I would have beaten Stefan." Well, that's certainly not a foregone conclusion, but I think that it was the best I felt on grass with a transition game where I was moving forward the best out of all the years I played, that year.

IVAN LENDL: I'm sorry, start over.

IVAN LENDL: The early '80s, yes. Your accent throws me off (smiling).

IVAN LENDL: I haven't seen Jimmy in I don't know how long. I have seen John the other day for the first time probably in -- since he retired. So nothing really happens. No fist fights break (smiling). Just normal two guys who pretty much respect each other, how good they were.

IVAN LENDL: No, I did not.

IVAN LENDL: No, I did not.