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Happy Birthday To Greenwich’'s Ivan Lendl

GREENWICH, Conn. -- Happy Birthday To Greenwich’s Ivan Lendl!

Ivan Lendl turns 54 on Friday.

Ivan Lendl turns 54 on Friday.

Lendl, who has owned a home in Greenwich, turns 56 on Monday. The tennis player was born March 7, 1960, in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia.

In 1978, Lendl won the boys singles titles at both the French Open and Wimbledon and was ranked as the world's No. 1 junior player.

He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s.

He first attained the world No. 1 ranking on Feb. 28, 1983, and bolstered his claim to the top spot when he defeated John McEnroe in the 1984 French Open final.

He finished four years ranked as the world's top player (1985 to 1987 and 1989) and was ranked No. 1 for a total of 270 weeks, setting a new record.

He was the top-ranked player until August 1990 (with a break from September 1988 to January 1989 when Mats Wilander was at the top).

Lendl is the second male player to win more than 1,000 tennis singles matches with 1,071 and won 94 singles titles, second only to Jimmy Connors 109 titles.

He won two WCT Finals titles and five Masters Grand Prix titles, with the record of nine consecutive finals. He also won a record 22 Championship Series titles from 1980 to 1989, the precursors to the current ATP Masters 1000.

Lendl captured eight Grand Slam singles titles and competed in 19 Grand Slam singles finals, a record surpassed by Roger Federer in 2009.

He has been described as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. His game relied on strength and heavy topspin from the baseline and helped usher in the modern era of power tennis.

Lendl is an art collector and has a nearly complete collection of posters by Alfons Mucha. The collection was exhibited in Prague in 2013.

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