McEnroe and Lendl never saw eye to eye. The two could not be more different.
McEnroe oozed god given talent and charisma. But was also brash, loud and infuriating. Lendl was a superb athlete - nobody worked harder off or on the court - but was a cold, quiet, and hard to like tennis machine.
This clip neatly highlights their differing personalities. McEnroe plays a killer drop volley and then closes off the angles at the net. But Lendl doesn't hesitate to drill it straight down McEnroe's throat.
McEnroe goes down like he's been shot and stays down. Lendl barely skips a beat. The best bit is the slow mo close up towards the end of the clip.
Been racking my brain to try and remember where and when this took place. If you know post a comment.
UPDATE: Full marks to Van from Tennis talk anyone for some impressive detective work. It was Dallas, 1989. Check out the comment to see how he worked it out.
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1 comment:
OK, I figured this out through part-observation, part-dorkiness:
First thing I looked at were the clothes: Particularly, McEnroe's cross-trainers and the design on the back of Lendl's Adidas shirt. Seeing those made me realize it had to be late '80s. (the dorkiness part)
Then, I looked at the sponsorship boards and saw WCT, which '89 was the last year they had those events before the ATP took over the calendar, confirming late '80s for me. (part observation, but more dorkiness!)
A quick check on the ATP's head-to-heads found the only WCT match played on carpet between those two for years was in 1989 in Dallas.
Final Score: McEnroe won, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, 7-5.
That was fun! Got any more? : )
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