Robert Lansdorp; A Personal Portrait Part 1

Printable Version Robert Lansdorp: a coaching journey that began in 1970. Before he came to the Jack Kramer Club in the spring of 1970, Robert Lansdorp was known as a former college All-American and upcoming coach who had turned to coaching after finding he wasn’t quite good enough to support himself on the limited pro circuit of the day. Before Open tennis was finally allowed in 1968, most tournament players remained “shamateurs” — paid under the table in the form of very limited “expenses” — except for the fewer than a dozen players who were able to make a living on the pro tour managed by Jack Kramer. More akin to a traveling boxing tournament with a featured performer, it had a single champion format — for example, the great Pancho Gonzales — facing a series of challengers such as Tony Trabert, Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall. After graduating from Pepperdine University in 1965, Lansdorp took a stab at the 9-to-5 corporate world with a brief stint as an assistant bank manager but soon realized he was unsuited for it in every way possible. Then he turned to coaching and began to make a name for himself in San Diego,…