Obituary
Remembering Robert Lansdorp: Austin, Davenport & Teltscher pay tribute
Legendary coach has handed away aged 85
September 18, 2024
Scott Halleran/Getty Pictures
Robert Lansdorp with one in all his gamers, Maria Sharapova.
By Andrew Eichenholz
Robert Lansdorp, the pioneering coach based mostly in California who mentored 4 World No. 1s and impacted numerous gamers in any respect ranges all through his profession, has handed away aged 85.
Lansdorp, who was born in Indonesia after which moved along with his household to the Netherlands earlier than they relocated to the USA, performed faculty tennis at Pepperdine College. The All-American is not going to be remembered for his aggressive achievements, although. He grew to become a legend as a coach, inspiring a number of generations of stars to achieve their potential.
Lansdorp mentored each ATP and WTA greats from an early age, growing them into the worldwide icons they grew to become. Notable legends he coached embody Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova.
Lansdorp started working with eventual World No. 1 Austin on the Jack Kramer Membership in California when she was seven. In 1979, aged 16, she received the US Open.
“As a coach, it did not matter whether or not he was teaching a No. 1 on the planet or somebody that hoped to make the highschool crew, he gave 100 per cent,” Austin instructed ATPTour.com. “He simply liked the problem of making an attempt to make that individual on the opposite aspect of the courtroom one of the best tennis participant that they may very well be. He loved that. He truly loved that problem of creating that individual a greater tennis participant with the half an hour or the hour that he had.
“His DNA was to to push you, however he additionally pushed himself. And I believe once we realised that, you then you had been on board. You had been on board [and knew] that we had been on this journey collectively… He requested for perfection, however you had been greater than prepared to attempt to get there.”
One other World No. 1, Davenport, added: “Robert was so distinctive. He was a character like nobody I’ve ever met or been round, and I used to be actually lucky to have him come into my life after I was round 9 years previous.
“He modified my life when it comes to, I might by no means have gone down the trail or achieved something I used to be in a position to obtain with out having him in my life. It is laborious to place in phrases, as a result of all of us that labored with him, I’ve talked to so many individuals within the final day and a half, and now we have this bond although we do not essentially converse on a regular basis, simply due to our historical past [with Robert]. He was so essential to so many individuals over such a protracted time period.”
The previous No. 6 participant within the PIF ATP Rankings, Eliot Teltscher, additionally began with Lansdorp nicely earlier than he was a teen. Now 65, he has remained shut along with his mentor ever since.
“I ended taking part in tennis nearly 40 years in the past, however I stayed buddies with Robert till the very finish. So his affect for me did not finish after I stopped taking part in tennis. His affect was, for me, for my life. One of the simplest ways I may put it’s he by no means stopped teaching me,” Teltscher stated. “We’d speak and talk about issues and discuss issues after I wasn’t taking part in tennis, after I was in my 40s and 50s and 60s. It by no means ended. He was, I believe for me, a bit extra of a mentor than a coach.
“It did not cease when tennis stopped, it continued. A number of occasions, you train any person once they’re achieved taking part in, that is it, that is the tip of it. I will converse for myself and never for others, however I believe lots really feel the identical manner. My relationship with Robert by no means ended. It went on without end. I known as him up each few months to only say, ‘Hey, what is going on on? What’s this? What’s that?’ It by no means, by no means stopped. So I am going to miss that.”
Writer Malcolm Gladwell popularised the ten,000-hour rule, which presents the concept it takes practising a ability for 10,000 hours to grasp it. In line with Teltscher, Lansdorp embodied that lengthy earlier than it was broadly mentioned like it’s at present.
“The commonest factor folks had was all his college students tried actually, actually laborious, and it was due to the respect they’d for Robert as an individual. It was that respect that you just needed him to be pleased with you, so that you tried actually laborious,” Teltscher stated. “Earlier than the man got here out with it, Robert was mainly preaching it. If you wish to get good, you have to hit 1,000,000 balls. And he had a really massive basket of balls, a lot bigger than, truly, anyone I’ve ever seen. And so that you did not get too many breaks, and you bought a tonne of balls till it grew to become the place you would do it with out pondering. You might simply do it.”
Austin recalled drills during which Lansdorp would hold a brush deal with from the web with a hook and there could be a tennis can that will sit properly on the highest. It was a goal that required a number of accuracy. The coach would then feed ball after ball to see how typically his participant may hit it.
“You’d do it again and again, and he’d place it for the cross courtroom, and place it for the down the road, and you then’d play a sport and see what number of out of 10 you would get,” Austin stated. “There was at all times some methodology to his insanity, whether or not it was making an attempt to hit you slices and high spins, or making an attempt to make you hit on the rise, to problem your timing, or making an attempt to make you mentally powerful.
“You’d play a sport, and you would be up within the sport, and it’s 15-7 and he’d go, ‘Nope, it’s 15-7 for me’. You’d go, ‘No Robert, it’s 15-7 for me’, and he’d sort of chuckle. You knew he was doing this for a motive, simply to [make you] dig in a bit bit stronger and never not give in, attempt to make you more durable.”
In line with Davenport, Lansdorp’s drills remained the identical over the a long time. She did the identical issues Austin did and her son Jagger Leach, the junior World No. 15 who’s taking part in his first skilled event this week, needed to undergo the identical drills when he visited with Lansdorp in 2017.
“You needed to turn out to be nice at them, and also you needed to do them on a regular basis,” Davenport stated. “For those who did not do it nicely sooner or later, guess what? You had been going to maintain doing it till you figured it out.”
Earlier this yr, a number of of Lansdorp’s former gamers and others in the neighborhood gathered on the Jack Kramer Membership to honour the 85-year-old. It’s clear his legacy will keep it up.
“He was a personality,” Davenport stated. “He will not be forgotten, that is for certain.”
