Tuesday, February 12, 2013. Fifty-two and 11/12ths year old Ivan Lendl arrived in Boca Raton with his tennis game rusty and his physique out-of-shape but with a marvelous sense of humor, a radiant joie de vivre and every now and then with traces of his elegant shot-making ability that once propelled him to an extended period as a dominant figure in the world of tennis.
Ivan huffed and puffed his way to a one set loss to Aaron Krickstein, a younger and fitter athlete who spends hours on the courts each day teaching tennis - - - and who was at the top of his game. It was a good natured exhibition with play interrupted with good-natured ribbing by the players and the announcer, but I’m sure Aaron relished this victory after all the beatings he's taken from Lendl in tournament play.
Ivan was asked why he was always stone-faced when the TV cameras focused on him time and time again at the past Wimbledon, while he was watching his pupil Andrew Murray play. Ivan replied that the British press kept asking him why he was so emotionless at the time that his pupil was setting tennis history in Great Britain (Murray became the first male singles British Wimbledon finalist in the open era). Ivan said he just got 'pissed off' at the repetitious questioning and made up his mind never to smile.
He did a lot a smiling and joking at the Boca Raton exhibition and endeared himself to the crowd with his demeanor and his graceful and often powerful strokes.
Lendl, is a Connecticut resident, US citizen and father of five girls, three of whom are members of their colleges’ golf team. Ivan also has become a golfer and it wasn’t clear whether he said he could beat his daughters on the links.
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