By any metric, Ivan Lendl is the most successful men’s singles player of the 1980s, given he won 7 major titles and appeared in 17 major finals during the decade (He later won an eighth in 1990), had 5 years with winning percentages north of 90% (No other player has ever come close), made a record 8 consecutive US Open Finals, held winning records against the likes of Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Mats Wilander and Boris Becker, spent a then-record 270 weeks as the ATP No.1, won the Year-End Tour Finals on 5 occasions, and served as the forerunner to the modern age domination of baseline power hitters thanks to his mastery of the inside out forehand.

However, Ivan The Terrible had one major downfall, that being his sheer unluckiness in Grand Slam Finals, finishing runner-up in 11 out of his 19 final appearances, including his first 4 attempts (A feat later matched by Lendl’s student Andy Murray), and 6 of his first 7 appearances (His 1984 French Open comeback being the exception), and would most famously lose the Wimbledon Final twice in a row (1986 to Becker and 1987 to Pat Cash) during a run of 7 Semi-Finals in 8 years, preventing him from completing the career Grand Slam, with his one-time attitude to the surface summed up by his 1982 quote, “Grass is for the cows.”

However, the cows would probably have more luck at the All-England Club than Lendl did, despite his eventual improvement on the surface with coaching from Tony Roche.

Further to it, if you encompass the amateur and Open Eras of Tennis when counting statistics, then Lendl’s 5-set defeat to Wilander in the 1988 US Open Final saw him overtake Ken Rosewall for the most Grand Slam Final defeats (Rosewall had 8, it was Lendl’s ninth)…

But now, over 32 years after the great Czech lost the 1991 Australian Open Final to Becker, he no longer holds a share of the record for the most Grand Slam Final defeats:

Roger Federer matched Lendl’s record by losing to Djokovic in the marathon 2019 Wimbledon Final, which turned out to be Federer’s 31st and last Grand Slam Final appearance…

While Djokovic himself finished runner-up for the 11th time when he lost the 2021 US Open Final to Daniil Medvedev, as the weight of the historic calendar Grand Slam proved too much to overcome…

And, as of Sunday evening, Novak Djokovic, through sheer weight of consistency over a 15-year period, lost his 12th Grand Slam Final in his record 35th appearance against Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon, claiming the record outright from Federer and Lendl.

The other funny part about Djokovic’s latest record is that Lendl, through his association with Murray, gave Djokovic 2 of his major defeats (2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon.)

For the record, this is the all-time table of Grand Slam final defeats, which should also highlight how freakishly good Rafael Nadal’s record is:

Djokovic: 12 defeats (23 titles)

Federer: 11 defeats (20 titles)

Lendl: 11 defeats (8 titles)

Nadal: 8 defeats (22 titles)

Murray: 8 defeats (3 titles)

Rosewall: 8 defeats (8 titles)

On the other hand, look at the positives, those numbers should highlight how amazingly consistent all those players have been/are, and, it’s another record Novak Djokovic has taken from Roger Federer!