Robert Lansdorp, coach of four world No 1s, passes away

Robert Lansdorp has passed away, aged 85, with the Tennis Channel’s Jon Wertheim reporting the news late on Monday night.

Lansdorp coached four players to No 1 in the world, including Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Tracey Austin and Lindsay Davenport. Between them, the four won 24 Grand Slams, with three already in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

He was a serial coach, estimating that across his career 20 of the players he was involved with made it to the world’s top 20.

“Robert taught me to hit properly,” Sampras said of the coach, while Austin also credited Lansdorp with much of her success.

“Robert was a big part of my success,” she said. “You know he’s going to make you tougher, to make you stronger, to make you mentally tough.”

“There was a point to all that torture,” Sharapova had reflected earlier in her book.  “Everything was done in the service of a philosophy. Every drill had a reason, was taking the player somewhere.”

“He was like a second father to me,” said Davenport in 2013. “We were super close. He was really gentle with me.”