Ivan Lendl (IPA: ) (born March 7, 1960) is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. Tennis magazine named him as one of the ten greatest tennis players since 1966, calling him "the game’s greatest overachiever" and emphasizing his importance in the game’s history. In his book Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis, Bud Collins included Lendl in his list of the 21 greatest male tennis players for the period from 1946 through 1992.
Lendl captured eight Grand Slam singles titles during his career. He competed in a total of 19 Grand Slam singles finals, a record for a male player. He reached at least one Grand Slam final for 11 consecutive years, an all-time record since tied by Pete Sampras.
Lendl first attained the World No. 1 ranking on the men's professional tour on February 28, 1983, bolstering his claim to the top spot when he defeated John McEnroe in the 1985 U.S. Open final. For much of the next five years, Lendl was the top ranked player until August 1990 (with short break from September 1988 till January 1989 when Mats Wilander was at the top). He finished four years ranked as the world's top player (1985-87 and 1989) and was ranked World No. 1 for a total of 270 weeks, breaking the record previously held by Jimmy Connors (this has since been surpassed by Sampras).
Lendl's game relied particularly on strength and heavy topspin from the baseline and helped usher in the modern era of "power tennis." He himself called his game as "hitting hot", a relentless all-court game that was coming to dominate in tennis.