"You need to use the opportunities and present successful people to the young generation to have patterns. They should say they want to be like Navratilova. Young boys do not even know who Lendl was. This is crazy," says Jan Kodeš, promoter and one of five heroes of the series of gold commemorative coins of the Czech Mint called "Czech Tennis Legends".

Jan Kodeš was born on 1 March 1946 and became one of our best tennis players. He started as an amateur, soon became a world professional and ended his career as a recognized tennis official. He appreciated the offensive style with aggressive basic strikes, especially the excellent raised bekhend and very good network play. He has become the multiple champion of republic. He has been the first player in the Czechoslovakian ranking for twelve years and for seventeen years a member of the Davis Cup team, where he played a record 96 matches. He won as one of only five Czechs in history.three grandslam tournaments in doubles - twice at the French Open and in the legendary Wimbledon in 1973.

The artwork of the tennis coin comes from the studio of an expert medal maker MgA. Martin Dašek. The winning moment of John Kodeš holding the Wimbledon Cup was on the reverse side. It is surrounded by English inscription "CZECH TENNIS LEGEND JAN KODES" and by selection of his greatest tennis successes. The coins of the Czech Mint are based on the license of a foreign publisher, which is the state of Samoa. Therefore the obverse side bears its essential attributes including the national emblem, the name and profile of Queen Elizabeth II, the nominal value of 25 DOLLARS (WST) together with the year of the issue 2018. The composition is complemented by inscription "WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONS".

Part of each of only 200 gold coins is a Czech-English certificate of authenticity, which describes the sporting career of Jan Kodeš. A set of Czech tennis legends can be stored in a collector's etui, which you can also find in the offer of the Czech Mint.