Ivan Lendl (born March 7, 1960 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech tennis player. He was #1 ranked player in ATP rankings for 270 weeks from 1983 to 1990. Ivan Lendl reached finals in 18 Grand Slam tournaments, including eight straight finals in the US Open from 1982 to 1989. He won US Open three times (1985, 1986 and 1987), French Open three times (1984, 1986 and 1987) and Australian Open twice (1989 and 1990). One reason for his success was the hardcourt surface used at Flushing Meadows. The workers that each year laid the surface, went directly to Lendl's house in Long Island. This way Lendl could get an exact copy at his own lawn. Despite his great success, Lendl never managed to win the Tournament of Wimbledon, and therefore, he never managed to complete the career Grand Slam.
