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