Motivation Quote by Ivan Lendl

Lendl’s “to be fair” is doing heavy lifting. It’s the verbal equivalent of a respectful nod before a hard truth: cross-era comparisons in tennis are usually less about data than about ego. Coming from a player whose legacy is built on relentless baseline pressure and methodical dominance, the line reads like a veteran refusing both nostalgia and cheap dismissal of the present.

The intent is calibration. Lendl isn’t crowning today’s stars or defending his own résumé; he’s trying to adjust the measuring tape. When he says players “have many more shots” and “use them differently,” he’s pointing to a structural shift, not a talent gap. The modern game offers expanded options because the sport’s ecosystem has changed: rackets and strings generate heavier spin, balls travel differently, training is more specialized, and surfaces have converged toward medium pace. That doesn’t just speed up rallies; it changes decision-making. Players can take the ball earlier, improvise angles, and attack with margins that would have been reckless decades ago.

The subtext is also a quiet rebuke to the myth that greatness is timeless in the same way. Lendl’s era rewarded pattern-building and endurance within clearer tactical lanes; today’s rewards elastic problem-solving at higher tempo. By framing it as evolution rather than superiority, he protects the integrity of both eras while admitting something many legends avoid: the sport didn’t simply get harder or easier, it got different in ways that make direct hierarchy a trap.