The world of tennis mourns Robert Lansdorp, a historic coach who has died on the age of 85. Lansdorp educated a number of the legends of our beloved tennis, together with Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Tracey Austin and Lindsay Davenport.
Talking about him in an interview a while in the past, the 14-time Grand Slam winner Sampras mentioned: “Robert has been an enormous a part of my success. You recognize he’ll make you harder, he’ll make you stronger, he’ll make you mentally powerful.”
Additionally Sharapova spoke of her former coach and the torture he inflicted throughout follow, in a passage in her ebook: “There was a function to all that torture. All the pieces was executed within the service of a philosophy. Each train had a cause, it took the participant someplace.”
Davenport reported in a 2013 interview: “We had been very shut. He was actually form to me. He was like a second father to me.”
RIP Legendary tennis coach Robert Lansdorp who labored w/ #1 gamers together with Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport and lots of different champions… Sending our ideas to his household… pic.twitter.com/sJONX1Cvtm
— WINNING movie (@thewinningfilm) September 16, 2024
Born within the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Lansdorp settled in California however was born in Indonesia, which on the time was known as the Dutch East Indies. In 1979, his participant Tracy Austin grew to become the youngest US Open ladies’s singles champion, on the age of 16. Later, along with Sampras, Davenport and Sharapova, Robert additionally adopted Eugenie Bouchard and Julia Boserup.
Lansdorp obtained the USTA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 and was honored as a Group USA Teaching Legend alongside Nick Bollettieri, Jerry Baskin, and Jack Sharpe on the 2013 Group USA Teaching Legend Inaugural Reception in Indian Wells, California.
One of the crucial memorable moments of his profession got here in 2004, when Lansdorp mentioned, “I’ve by no means obtained something from a participant. Not even a $500 present. They’re all multimillionaires, however I’ve by no means obtained something. And I let you know, if Maria does not put a Mercedes convertible in my driveway, I’ll shoot myself!”
