Even the mighty Ivan Lendl was cracked by a simple heckle.
It happened at the end of his career – not his prime best years.
Source: “I remember Ivan Lendl playing in Montreal, and it was a very close match. and then the fan yelled: ‘Don’t choke like you did at Wimbledon!’ And at that moment Lendl completely lost his fighting spirit, and it was just curtains from there.
Lendl was playing against his Czech Republic countryman Petr Korda. The final score of the match indicated the heckle did indeed touch a nerve in Lendl’s inner psyche – 67 (4) 16. It was the quarterfinals of Canadian Open 1993. This was the year Mikael Pernfors beat Todd Martin in the finals.
Earlier that year Lendl had lost in the second round at Wimbledon to Arnaud Boetsch of France 64 57 36 46. Lendl had previously dominated Boetsch in 1991 and 1992 both easily in straight sets in New Haven and Basel. Boetsch beat Lendl first round at 1994 French Open 64 63 64.
Lendl always had big problems with Korda, he lost four our of five matches to Korda from 1991-1993.
Arnaud Boetsch · ATP · Canadian Open · Ivan Lendl · Montreal · Petr Korda · Wimbledon
Sam · March 19, 2026 at 4:11 am
Wow—just goes to show you the power of words. 😲
By the way, who’s that guy with the camera in the small photo?
Scoop Malinowski · March 19, 2026 at 10:12 am
Sam. It’s Peter Figura the Canadian photographer who witnessed this unforgettable incident.
Sam · March 31, 2026 at 4:09 am
Scoop, well, now the photo seems to be gone, and I only see a broken image with the caption “Peter Figura.” 🤔
Scoop Malinowski · March 31, 2026 at 7:54 am
The phantom photo snatcher strikes again )