Robert Lansdorp: A Personal Portrait Part 3

Carolyn Xie: another possible Lansdorp superstar? No one would fault tennis coach Robert Lansdorp for retiring after having produced four number one ranked players:Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras,Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova. Instead, the former Jack Kramer Club coach is back in Palos Verdes working with nine-year-old Carolyn Xie. After 30 minutes of coaching, coaxing and pleading, Robert Lansdorp is finally satisfied in an unsatisfying way. “Now that’s a good backhand,” he yells across the net. “And it only took half an hour.” Lansdorp removes his black wraparound sunglasses, wipes the sweat dripping like summer rain from his long white mane, points his index finger in the air, slowly raises himself to his full 6-foot-3 and pantomimes a professor doing a math equation on a chalk board. Lansdorp with Sharapova when Maria was still on the way up. “Let’s see,” he says sarcastically. “At that rate, you’ll be 30 before you can hit a consistent backhand.” He pauses a beat: “And I’ll be dead by then.” Across the net, 9-year-old Carolyn Xie takes it all in stride without cracking a smile or flashing a frown. After 18 months of once-a-week private lessons with the legendary Lansdorp, she’s seen and heard it…