June 20th, 2012
The Pig sends along this NYT piece on Ivan Lendl’s new gig as Andy Murray’s coach. Filled with goodness.
It reminds me of my favorite moment in David Owen’s 2006 New Yorker profile of Lendl:
Lendl has a classic jock’s sense of humor, strongly shifted toward the practical-joke-and-trash-talk end of the comedy spectrum. He once went bike riding near his home in Connecticut with a good friend, a golf pro, and one hill was so steep that the pro had to get off his bike and walk. A week or so later, Lendl had Warren Bosworth call the pro, pretending to be a reporter from a golf publication. Bosworth said that he was working on an article about physical conditioning, and then asked questions about things like diet and stretching and exercise. Eventually, the discussion came around to bicycling, and Bosworth said, “Tell me. When you come to a steep hill, do you ride your bike or push it?” There was a long silence. Then the pro said, “Tell Ivan to go fuck himself.”
SkinsFanPG June 21, 2012 at 8:08 am
I’ve always felt like Lendl got an unfair rap as the guy between McEnroe-Connors-Bjorg and Sampras-Agassi, when he was actually an all-time great during a transition period in tennis. That prank just makes me love him more.