The Little Nation that Could

This weekend, the Czech Republic is hoping to become the first team to win both the Fed Cup and Davis Cup competitions in the same year since the United States did it in 1990.

The population of the U.S. in 1990 was 248,709,873. The population of Czechoslovakia at the time was just north of 15 million, and the population of the Czech Republic, as of last March, was 10,562,214.  

But whether it’s Czechoslovakia or the Czech Republic under consideration, the one thing for certain is that in tennis, this has always been the little nation that could.  

In the Open era, the Czechs have produced Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl, who contested 19 Grand Slam singles finals and won eight (surpassing his career rival John McEnroe in both departments), as well as one of the only two women who can make a legitimate case as the Greatest of All Time, Martina Navratilova (the other claimant and, in my book, the more deserving one, is Steffi Graf).  

That’s not too bad for country with less than a sixth the population of France, a nation that has contributed numerous Top 10 players to the game but only one multiple Grand Slam singles champion in recent years, AmelieMauresmo (she won two). The only male Frenchman to bag a major in the Open era was Yannick Noah.

The Czechs haven’t just produced towering champions; they’ve also produced tremendously proficient ones—skilled ones, tough ones, fit ones, and strikingly big, raw-boned ones, two of whom are at the tip of this two-pronged Davis and Fed Cup spear: Tomas Berdych, presently the country’s top male, and his female counterpart, Petra Kvitova.

Berdych has reached a Grand Slam final and may yet win one of the prized majors; Kvitova, despite being just 22, has salted one away already, last year at Wimbledon. But Czech distinction isn’t really about champions, who are unique individuals that pop up almost anywhere (think Roger Federer, Gustavo Kuerten, Bjorn Borg). The amazing thing about the Czechs is that they have produced such a strong stream of extremely-good to great players over such a long period of time.  

As well as the Grand Slam events and tours keep records, there’s nothing like the Davis and Fed Cup record book for surveying tennis history. While geopolitical and historical details have sometimes influenced the record (Lendl and Navratilova, for example, expatriated from communist Czechoslovakia to the U.S. early in their careers), everyone who is anyone in tennis has played at least some for his or her nation. Just how much—and how successfully—is yet another way to measure the place of a player in the game, as well as his or her longevity.  

Take <strong>Ladislav Hecht</strong>, for example, the Czech who was ranked No. 6 in the world in his prime during the 1930s. He was 18-19 in Davis Cup (14-15 in singles), won the German Open, and was a two-time finalist at the Italian Open. He was considered by many the best European player in the period preceding World War II.  

Hecht had wins over Bobby Riggs, Jack Crawford, and Fred Perry. In 1938, when Don Budge achieved a Grand Slam by winning the world's four major tournaments, Hecht twice had him at match point at Wimbledon.  

A Jew, Hecht fled Czechoslovakia when the tanks of the Nazi regime began to roll, and he lived out his life in relative peace and serenity, often playing senior USTA tennis in Kew Gardens, Queens—a stone’s throw from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.  

In the post-WWII era, the first prominent Czech was <strong>Jaroslav Drobny</strong>. He lost the 1949 Wimbledon final, and came under such heavy criticism in what had become his Communist homeland that he defected to Egypt. Drobny went on to win three majors: Two at the French Open (he also lost three finals at Roland Garros) and one at Wimbledon, over legend-in-the-making Ken Rosewall.  

Drobny was 32 at the time he finally won Wimbledon, and capturing that elusive title proved his last hurrah. He also had a terrific Davis Cup record—37-6, 24-4 in singles—but played just four years for Czechoslovakia. In two of those years, he lifted the team to the semifinal stage.  

Let’s take a quick survey of some of the Czech men who succeeded Drobny, keeping in mind that in this country, there’s always a Jiri Hrebec here, a Bohdan Ulihrach or Ivo Minar there. We’ll go alphabetically:

Jan Kodes: A player with a gorgeous one-handed backhand and classic, compact strokes, he won the French Open twice early in the Open era, as well as Wimbledon—although that was during the infamous boycott year of 1973. He was also a two-time runner-up at the U.S. Open (on grass in 1971 and 1973) and is thought to be the first to utter those oft-repeated words: “Grass is for cows.”Kodes was ranked as high as No. 4 (September 1973).

Petr Korda: The less said about this bogus Grand Slam winner the better. He was busted as a drug cheat.

Karel and Jan Kozeluh: While Jan, the younger of the Kozeluh brothers, was a two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist, accumulated an excellent 29-17 Davis Cup record, and once ranked as high as No. 10 in the world, Karel was the superior player.

But like many forgotten or under-appreciated players (led by the great Pancho Gonzalez) who preceded the Open era, Karel’s long-term reputation was hurt by the fact that he turned pro as early as he could. Thus, he was barred from playing Grand Slam events. Still, at his best in the 1930s, Karel won the U.S. Pro Championships three times, as well as the French professional championships, feats that helped earn him enshrinement in the International Hall of Fame.  

Ivan Lendl: Andy Murray’s coach needs no introduction or recitation of the details his remarkable career save this one: He led the Czechs to their only triumph in the Davis Cup, in 1980.

Miloslav Mecir: Still a paragon of delightful movement and racquet work, the “Big Cat” never appeared to run on a tennis court. He just seemed to. . . materialize at the ball, and then barely swing at it. His timing and ability to use an opponent’s pace against him was that good.

A gold medalist at the 1988 Olympics, Mecir also won the prestigious WCT finals (defeating McEnroe) and was the runner up at two majors (Australian and U.S. Opens). In 1986, he was one of four Czechs (along with Lendl, Helena Sukova and Navratilova) in the semifinals of the U.S. Open singles tournaments, but he lost the title match to Lendl.  

Mecir had to retire prematurely due to a chronic lower back injury.  

Pavel Slozil: The winner of 32 ATP doubles titles and a Grand Slam mixed doubles champ, Slozil would earn greater recognition as the coach who guided Graf to 10 Grand Slam championships as well as her “Golden Slam.”

Tomas Smid: Lendl’s stablemate on the 1980 Czech team, “Smidley” was an astonishingly quick—and quick-strike—player whose highest career ranking was No. 11. But he won 54 doubles titles and was at various times the best doubles player in the world. A Davis Cup workhorse, Smid played for his homeland for 13 years, amassing a 42-25 record (22-15 in singles). His best singles wins were at Stuttgart, Germany, where Smidley won the event both outdoors on an indoor hard court.

Radek Stepanek: I’ve left out a fair number of worthy Czechs (check out the Davis Cup record of Roderich Menzel or the career details of the early pro era’s Vladimir Zednik if you doubt me), but I include Stepanek here because he’s in this year’s final. And what makes that noteworthy is that the Czechs have won just one Davis Cup (see Lendl, above), which is somewhat surprising, especially in light of the success of the women, who have won the Fed Cup seven times, which is good for second (tied with Australia) on the all-time list.

Speaking of the women, let’s also take a look at them, alphabetically, leaving out the aforementioned Kvitova and fellow stalwart compatriots <strong>Iveta Benesova</strong> and <strong>Lucie Safarova</strong>, the hero of the Czechs’ most recent Fed Cup win.  

Hana Mandlikova: One of the most talented players ever to swing a racquet, Mandlikova was also so moody that she suffered an astonishing number of upsets and could fall victim to anyone on a given day. Still, playing in the Evert-Navratilova era, Mandlikova won four Grand Slam titles and fell just one match shy of completing a career Grand Slam. She was a two-time Wimbledon runner-up, losing to Evert once and Navratilova on the other occasion.

Ranked as high as No. 3, Mandlikova married in 1986 and left her Aussie restaurateur husband after two years, when she received Australian citizenship. But Mandlikova put in a full decade as a Czech Fed Cup player, accumulating an outstanding 49-12 record (34-6 in singles). With a player like that, who needs Navratilova? (The grand dame of Czech tennis was 9-0 in Fed Cup, playing only one year: 1975.)

Jana Novotna: Perhaps most famous for crying on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent after she choked in a Wimbledon final against Graf, Novotna did finally win that title in 1998—and she was the runner-up at two other majors as well, after Mandlikova took her under her wing.

Widely admired for her unrelenting, aggressive yet somehow airy serve-and-volley style, Novotna was ranked No 2 in 1997 and won an impressive 24 titles. She also was a semifinalist twice at the French and U.S. Opens.  

Helena Sukova: If there’s a true Mother Czech, it has to be Sukova—the woman who stuck it out in her homeland for her entire career, (along with many fine but more pedestrian players, like Regina Marsikova and Renata Tomanova) through good times and bad.

Overshadowed throughout her career by superior players including Navratilova, Chris Evert, and Graf, Sukova reached four Grand Slam finals, but lost to one or the other of those icons each time. Still, she was a consistent staple of the Top 10 and ranked right behind the three Grand Slam champs in 1985, when she reached a career-high, No. 4. Sukova’s Fed Cup record shines bright: She’s the all-time Czech leader in wins, with a brilliant 57-16 (45-11 in singles) record amassed through 13 years of service.  

Nicole Vaidisova: She was one of the most promising of Czech players in the recent Open era, and was also one of the most baffling. Vaidisova was French Open semifinalist in 2006 at age 17, and in 2007 reached the Aussie Open semis and a career-high singles ranking of No. 7. But she was gone from the game by the late summer of 2009—the seeming victim of burnout.

Eerily, given the context of this survey, the decline in Vaidisova’s game was often attributed to her romantic relationship with Stepanek. The two of them eventually married, in 2010. For those who allege Stepanek of robbing the Czechs of Vaidisova, he can step up this weekend in Prague, when the Czech Republic hosts Spain in the final.