Jan Kodes of the Czech Republic, the 1973 Wimbledon champion and 1970-71 French Open champion, is the author of the new book JAN KODES: A JOURNEY TO GLORY FROM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN, a one-of-a-kind coffee table book that documents the history of tennis in the Czech Republic. The book features an incredible array of historic and never seen before photos and many anecdotes and stories about Czech players including Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl and many others. It is available for 24 percent off here: http://www.amazon.com/
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When I first heard that Ivan Lendl was going to be coaching Andy Murray, I thought “This will be an interesting challenge!”
I was a former Davis Cup teammate and doubles partner of Ivan’s for Czechoslovakia. I was also his Davis Cup captain!
In my opinion Murray’s decision to hire Ivan as his coach/ adviser to help him to achieve a higher status on the ATP Tour and to win a major title was a great arrangement.
Ivan can give him a good advice and confidence on how to deal with his pressure from media and British fans during the matches and to not lose his concentration. This seemed to be the case the last few years with Murray.
Ivan is always good in tactics and Murray could follow that even under the pressure, which is very important not to make an unforced errors to give your opponent another chance on those big points. Concentration and self-belief are also two areas where Ivan can help the Scotsman.
This agreement is only good if Murray will be able to accept his share of responsibility and believe in his new adviser/coach. Only time will show if this cooperation will bring the desired results.
Murray can greatly profit from Ivan’s ability to control himself and his attitude on the court, especially in the most critical times during his matches. Ivan was a bit delayed in winning his first major title – perhaps like Murray is today. Ivan was 24 years old when he won his first major at the 1984 French Open from two sets to love down and 0-3 down against John McEnroe in the final. Murray is now 24 years old too! To achieve his first Grand Slam title, Ivan had to work very hard for a long time. Ivan is the only player in the world who has played eight consecutive finals in the US Open. He had tremendous physical strength and extreme mental discipline. Ivan was also able to win major titles much later in his career as compared to Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander. His route to becoming No. 1 was not easy. He was a hard worker and was able to organize his lifestyle to achieve dreams. He was able to sacrifice most of life’s pleasures. His will to become No. 1 was much stronger than the others. He worked on his sliced backhand to improve variations in his game and worked hard on his second-serve toss with great patience. With strong groundstrokes, great passing shots and his killing forehand, he was able to dominate the game for many years. His mind and concentration for important points was a key to winning his most important matches. The great champions are always “very strong-minded” especially during important situations. Lendl was a perfect example of this.
I am very interested to watch the Australian Open to see how this partnership will work! Best of luck to Ivan and to Andy!