The Lendl–McEnroe rivalry was a tennis rivalry between

Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player and coach. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis ...

and

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

, who met in 36 matches between 1980 and 1992. Their head-to-head is 21–15, favoring Lendl. It is one of the most notable

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

rivalries of the

Open Era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today a ...

. Their most memorable match was the

1984 French Open The 1984 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 28 May until 10 June. It was the 83rd staging of the French Open, and the first Gra ...

final, when Lendl came from two sets down to win the championship, which McEnroe considered his worst loss. McEnroe, although capable of holding his own from the back court against most players, struggled against Lendl. Thus he would use every opportunity to get to the net and take time away from Lendl, who was not the fastest mover and had loopier racket swings—which on faster surfaces did not serve him as well as on

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

. McEnroe served a variety of spins, speed and placements to keep Lendl guessing and adjusting. Lendl, on the other hand, had a simpler game plan: serve hard enough to keep McEnroe back from the net, and then pound away with his powerful topspin groundstrokes. Both pushed each other to evolve—McEnroe adopted the Max200G racket to improve on his power, whereas Lendl hired a nutritionist, fitness advisor and

Tony Roche Anthony Dalton Roche Order of Australia, AO Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 17 May 1945) is an Australian former professional tennis player. A native of Tarcutta, Roche played junior tennis in the New South Wales regional city of Wagga ...

as his coach to improve his known weaknesses: second serve, backhand and volleys.

Head-to-head

Official matches (36)

Lendl 21 – McEnroe 15 *Note: WEA indicates a match canceled due to weather. There was no result in this final.

Breakdown of their rivalry

*All matches: (36) Lendl 21–15 *All finals: (18)* McEnroe 10–7, *(1 No Result) **Grand Slam finals: Lendl 2–1 **Grand Slam matches: Lendl 7–3 **Masters matches: Lendl 3–2 **WCT Finals matches: McEnroe 2–1 **Davis Cup matches: Lendl 1–0 **Other tournament matches: Tied 8–8

Other matches

Invitational matches

Lendl–McEnroe (16–11)

ATP rankings

Year-end ranking timeline

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lendl-Mcenroe Rivalry John McEnroe Tennis rivalries Sports rivalries in the United States