"Boris Becker was very powerful; Always played him when he was close to his best" - Ivan Lendl recalls rivalry with German
Among Ivan Lendl's biggest rivalries during his playing days, the one with Boris Becker was highly competitive, and Lendl was never able to dominate Becker consistently. The Czech-American tennis great recently opened up about the rivalry with Becker, explaining how playing an on-song Boris Becker was among the biggest challenges back then.
Lendl ended up with a narrow 11-10 lead in their overall head-to-head, while Becker won five of their six matches at the Grand Slams, including three finals — Wimbledon 1986, US Open 1989 and Australian Open 1991. Lendl feels Becker was generally a 'hot and cold player' but he faced a fired-up Becker more often than not, as evidenced by their record at the Majors.
Reflecting on their rivalry, Lendl said that the biggest challenge facing the German was trying to handle his highly powerful game that helped him control most points.
"There were a few challenges playing Boris. He was very powerful, so he could control the points. Nobody likes to have the opponent control the points, right?" Ivan Lendl recently said on The Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast.
Lendl stressed that Becker was always 'hot' rather than 'cold' each time they played and found it quite difficult to tame the German's game when he operated at his very best.
"The second thing is that Boris was 'hot and cold.' I got to play him always towards the end of the tournaments. If he was cold, he would have bad losses at times. But if he was on, now you're playing him at his best. I always played Boris when he was pretty close to his best so that was difficult," Lendl expressed.
Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker went on to coach two of the 'Big 4' in men's tennis
Many years after the end of their rivalry and their respective tennis retirements, both Boris Becker and Ivan Lendl made a huge impact as top-level coaches as well.
Six-time Grand Slam singles champion Becker coached Novak Djokovic and their three-year-long association was highly successful. With Becker as his coach, Djokovic won six Grand Slam titles and 14 Masters 1000 titles between 2013 and 2016, including the 2016 French Open title which helped him achieve the Career Grand Slam.
Lendl helped Andy Murray to all three of his three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic gold medals, the ATP Finals title, and the world no. 1 ranking, during their first two terms as player and coach. Lendl rejoined Murray's team in March 2022 and is currently with the Briton star as they are set to approach the 2023 season.
Meanwhile, Becker was recently released from prison and deported to Germany after spending eight months behind bars for financial crimes.