Former tennis coach Robert Lansdorp dies at age 85

According to The WTA Tour on Thursday, former high performance tennis coach Robert Lansdorp passed away on Monday at the age of 85. A native of Semarang, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Lansdorp lived in the Netherlands and the United States.

Lansdorp’s first claim to fame came in 1979 when he coached Tracy Austin of Palos Verdes Peninsula, California to the 1979 United States Open title. At the time, Austin, the third seed, upset fellow American Chris Evert of Fort Lauderdale, Florida 6-4, 6-3. Austin’s win was noteworthy because at age 16 was the youngest United States Open champion of all-time.

Among the other tennis players Lansdorp coached included Maria Sharapova of Russia, Lindsay Davenport of the United States, Brian Teacher of the United States, Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, and Pete Sampras of the United States.

Lansdorp was a critic of the United States Player Development Program. Under the program, players were starting to play on miniature courts. According to Lansdorp, players needed to play on a regular size court at the age of seven if their skill set allowed it.

Known for his unique coaching techniques, Austin remembers Lansdorp hung a broom handle from the net with a hook. A tennis can would sit on top of the broom, and players were required to hit the can to improve their accuracy. Lansdorp also was a strong supporter of the classic forehand grip, rather than the extreme western grip. He believed those that had the classic forehand grip, generated the most top spin, when hitting a tennis ball. In 2005, Lansdorp received the United States Tennis Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

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