Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 21, 1994                   TAG: 9412210085
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

BACK AILMENT FORCES LENDL TO CALL IT QUITS

``This is totally it for me,'' Lendl said in a conference call to announce his decision. ``My back doesn't allow me.''

Lendl said it was ironic that an injury would force out tennis' fittest player.

``I would have liked to deal with it on my own terms,'' he said. ``Ideally, you would like to end on a winning note. I would like to be involved in the game in another capacity, but not playing.''

Lendl, who held the world's No.1 ranking for a record 270 weeks, fell from the top 10 last year for the first time since 1979. He is the tour's all-time leader in winnings, with more than $20 million, and was No.1 for eight years.

``It is never easy,'' he said when asked about retiring from a sport he once dominated. ``It is not something you deal with every day.''

But the 34-year-old native of Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, now No.54 in the ATP Tour computer rankings, said he made his decision after his doctor told him his back would not get any better.

``After the [1994] U.S. Open, I've had more and more problems,'' he said. ``I've even tried to play a couple of senior events and found I couldn't do that.'

Asked which tournament performances he remembered best, he said: ``Obviously, the '84 French. I think the '81 French final is another one.''

In the 1984 French Open, Lendl came from two sets down in the championship match to defeat John McEnroe and earn his first Grand Slam tournament title after failing in four other finals.

He reached his first Grand Slam final at the 1981 French Open, losing in five sets to Bjorn Borg, the only time he faced the Swede in a Grand Slam final. Lendl won the U.S. Open in 1985, '86, '87 and was runner-up in 1982, '83, '84, '88 and '89, reaching the title match a record-tying eight consecutive years.

The past couple of years have been different. He made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open this year, running into eventual winner Pete Sampras. At the French Open, where he had won three titles, he was a first-round loser to Arnaud Boetsch. He skipped Wimbledon, then was forced to retire during his second-round match at the U.S. Open in September.

But after being the only man to win at least one tournament crown every year from 1980 through 1993, he did not win a title this year on the ATP Tour.