Ivan Lendl is getting back into coaching to try to groom the next American tennis champion. He is working with about a half-dozen 15- and 16-year-old boys as part of the U.S. Tennis Association’s player-development program. Lendl agreed to spend 50 days over the next year with the group, including a training camp that began late last month. “I enjoy working with younger players. You can form them and help them the most,” Lendl said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “It’s just fun watching how they try to learn. They ask a lot of questions. They try different things. They’re just eager to get better. You ask them how they think they will be playing in the future, what kind of style, and who their heroes are. You evaluate and establish what the weaknesses are. And then you design a program to work on those weaknesses. I really enjoy helping them conform to the way they think they should be playing. Unless, of course, we totally disagree about how they should play. If a guy who is going to be 6-foot-8 tells me he wants to play like Rafa, we will have more discussions.”

Ivan Lendl is part of two interesting tennis books that will now be presented here. ‘No. 1: Celebrating 40 Years of the Ultimate Achievement’ was published by the ATP in 2013, and ‘Tennis’ Greatest Stars’ by Mike Ryan was released last year. Take a look at both books in the gallery below.