Rod Laver

Rodney George "Rod" Laver (born August 9 1938, in Rockhampton, Australia) is a former tennis player from Australia who was the World No. 1 player for 6 consecutive years. More famously, he is the only player in tennis history to have twice won all four of tennis' Grand Slam singles titles in the same yearâ€"first as an amateur in 1962, and then again as a professional in 1969. For this achievement, Laver is considered by many tennis fans to be the greatest player of all time.

Career

As an amateur

Laver was a young boy when he left school to pursue a career in tennis that would end up lasting 23 years. He was US Junior Champion in 1956 and Australian Junior Champion 1957. His first major singles title was the Australian Championships in 1960, where he beat fellow Australian Neale Fraser in a titanic five-set final. He then captured his first Wimbledon singles crown in 1961.

In 1962, Laver became only the second male player after Don Budge in 1938 to win all four of the Grand Slam titles in the same year. That year, he set a record for the amateur era, winning 21 titles. In addition to the Grand Slam, he also won the Italian Championships and the German Championships â€" thus achieving a difficult clay court triple of Paris, Rome and Hamburg that has been achieved only one other time (by Lew Hoad in 1956). The biggest hurdle on his way to the Grand Slam was the French on slow clay, where Laver had to overcome three five-setters in a row from the quarterfinals onwards. In his quarterfinal with Martin Mulligan he had to save a matchpoint in the fourth set - with a backhand volley, coming in behind a second serve. In his Paris final, he came back from two sets down and 0-3 down in the fourth set, to defeat Roy Emerson. At Wimbledon his progress was much easier. Laver lost only one set in the whole tournament, to Manuel Santana in a turbulent quarterfinal, who held a setpoint for a two set lead, but was soundly beaten afterwards. At Forest Hills Laver rounded off his Grand Slam rather easily, losing only two sets on his way and beating Roy Emerson again in the final.

At the time, the Grand Slam events were only open to amateur players, who were given (under the table) little more than cost of living money for their appearances in tournaments.

Although of only medium build (1, 75 m), Laver developed a technically complete serve-and-volley game, with aggressive groundstrokes to back it up. As Dan Maskell put it, he was "technically faultless, from his richly varied serve to his feather-light touch on drop volleys plus a backhand drive carrying destructive topspin when needed or controlling slice when the situation demanded it". His lefthanded serve was well disguised and wide swinging. His wristy groundstrokes on both flanks were hit with topspin, an innovation in the 60s, as was the attacking topspin lob, which Laver developed into a weapon. His stroke-technique based on quick shoulder turns, true swings and exquisite timing. Especially his backhand, often hit on the run, was a point-ender. Laver was very quick and mobile, and had a gigantic left forearm. Rex Bellamy writes: "The strength of that wrist and forearm gave him blazing power without loss of control, even when he was on the run and at full stretch. The combination of speed and strength, especially wrist strength, enabled him to hit ferocious winners when way out of court". At the net he had forcing volleys, often hit as stroke volleys. Especially on the backhand he could hit sharp underspin angles as well. Julius Heldman points out: "He is competent on low balls, handling them with underspin for control, but he will cream any ball at waist level or higher". He was difficult to lob, because of his springing agility, and when forced to retreat he could come up with a vicious counterpunch.

As an amateur, Laver was a somewhat flashy player, often a late starter. He had to learn to control his adventurous shotmaking, and to integrate the percentage tennis into his game, when he turned professional. In his prime, he could adapt his style to all surfaces and to all conditions demanded. Laver had a great record in five-set-matches, often turning things around with subtle changes of tactics or by simply hitting his way out of danger. When he got into the 'zone', he went for broke. Then he would, as Heldman explains, "literally jump and throw his racket at the ball with all the force he could muster, wrist and arm snapping over at the hit."

As a professional

Laver turned professional after completing the Grand Slam in 1962. He quickly established himself among the leading professional players, delighting crowds with duels against Pancho Gonzales and Ken Rosewall. During the next seven years, Laver won the US Pro Championships five times, including four in a row from 1966-1969.

In the first half year of 1963, Laver was beaten badly by both Rosewall and Hoad. Hoad, in fact, won the first 8 matches against Laver, Rosewall 11 out of 13. By the end of the year, however, with three tournament titles, Laver had established himself as the No.2 professional player (on par with Hoad) behind Rosewall. In 1964 he ranked together with Rosewall with seven important titles, but Laver had a 12-3 head-to-head record over Rosewall and won the two most prestigious titles, the U.S. Pro over Gonzales and the Wembley Pro Championship over Rosewall (coming from behind in a tight 5-setter). In 1965 he became clearly the No. 1 professional player, winning 15 titles. In ten finals he met the still dangerous Gonzales, and won eight of their clashes. In 1966 he won ten important tournaments, again including the US Pro and Wembley crowns. In 1967 he won a record 18 titles, including the Wimbledon Pro, US Pro, Wembley Pro and French Pro Championship, which gave him a clean sweep of the important Pro titles. The tournament in 1967 on Wimbledon's Centre Court was the only Pro event ever staged on the sacred lawns and paved the way to open tennis. Laver beat Rosewall in the final 6-2, 6-2, 12-10.

Laver played 111 matches against Rosewall, all of them as a professional, winning 62 while losing 49. In open era the count is 22-9.

As an Open Era professional

With the dawn of the Open Era in 1968, professional players were once again allowed to compete in the Grand Slam events. Laver became Wimbledon's first Open Era champion in 1968, beating fellow-Australian Tony Roche in straight sets in the final.

In 1969, Laver achieved the Grand Slam for a second time, sealing the achievement with a four-set win over Roche in the US Open final. He had an incredible record that year, winning 17 of the 32 singles tournaments he entered and compiling a 106-16 win-loss record. In beating John Newcombe in four sets in the Wimbledon final, he captured the title at the All England Club for the fourth consecutive time that he'd entered the championship (and reached the final for the sixth consecutive time as he'd been runner-up in 1959 and 1960). He set a record of 31 consecutive match victories at Wimbledon between 1961 and 1970, which lasted until 1980 when it was eclipsed by Björn Borg. Unlike his first Grand Slam year in 1962, in 1969 Laver was playing in events open to all players in the professional and amateur ranks, and thus winning tournaments that involved all of the best players in the world. On his road to the Grand Slam, Laver had to go the full distance of five-set-matches five times, twice coming from back from 0-2 down in early rounds. In the four finals, however, he lost only two sets alltogether. His hardest match was a marathon 90-games semifinal against Roche at the Australian Open under tropical hot conditions. Other opponents at the Australian Open included Emerson, Fred Stolle and Andres Gimeno. At the French Open he beat Gimeno, Tom Okker and Rosewall. At Wimbledon he had to overcome strong challenges of later champions Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe, and Newcombe. At Forest Hills, on slippery grass courts, he defeated Dennis Ralston, Roy Emerson, Ashe, and Roche. The majors then were played on grass and clay (French Open). Laver showed his versatility, when he won the two most important hard court titles (South African Open at Ellis Park, Johannesburg and US Pro at Boston) as well as the leading indoor tournaments (Philadephia US Pro Indoor and Wembley British Indoor).

In the early 1970s Laver lost his grip on the major tournaments, playing a limited schedule there. But on the World Championship of Tennis (WCT) tours, he remained the leading player and by far the leading prize money winner. In 1970 he won 13 titles and US $ 201,453 in prize money including the rich 'Tennis Champions Classic'. In 1971 he defended his title in the 'Tennis Champions Classic', winning the astounding string of 13 straight winner-take-all-matches against top opponents and a sum of US $160,000. In 1971 and 1972 he was the points leader of the WCT tournament series, but lost the playoff finals at Dallas to Rosewall. The last match is rated as one of the best of all time and drew a TV audience of over 20 Million.In 1971, Laver won a then-record US$292,717 in tournament prize money. The figure enabled him to become the first tennis player to surpass US$1 million in prize money.Until 1975 Laver remained a top ten player, in 1974 he won 6 out of 13 tournaments and ended the year as computer Nr. 4, with 36 the oldest player ever in open era, who reached the top five at years end. He is credited with a record 45 open titles for a player older than 30 years. And despite his advanced age he held an overall win-loss-percentage of around 80% in open era alone, which places him still fifth on the open era list behind Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe, but ahead of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.

Davis Cup

Laver helped Australia win the Davis Cup four consecutive times from 1959-62. In 1973, professionals were permitted to play in the Davis Cup for the first time, and Laver was on a winning team for the fifth time, claiming two singles and a doubles rubber in the final as Australia beat the United States 5-0.

Place among the all-time great tennis players

The exact record of Laver is not easy to comprehend, because until the Association of Tennis Professionals(ATP) computer rankings were established in 1973, there was no objective ranking system, and the statistics in most reference books for the pre-open and early open years are highly incomplete. A further problem is the amateur-pro-segregation in the years before the arrival of open tennis in 1968. Laver was ranked the World No. 1 player in 1961, 1962 (as an amateur), and 1968 and 1969 (in open era) by the press. In between he was the top pro player 1964-1967. The only objective parameter in those years was the prize money winners list. In that category, Laver was the pro leader in the years 1964 to 1971. There are different accounts of his tournament singles titles. The ATP credits him with 39 open era titles won, but these were only ATP sanctioned events. Other sources give him 47 titles in open era alone. His overall tally, however, is much higher. The reference book 'Total Tennis' (2003) credits him with 184 titles in amateur, pro, and open competition. In the list below, there are 163 tournament titles registered in the years 1960-1975. Laver retired from the professional tennis tour in 1975. He was still ranked in the Top 10 at the time of his retirement. Although Laver was past his prime by the time the Association of Tennis Professionals computer rankings were initiated, he still managed to earn a respectable World No. 3 as his highest rank.

Laver's eleven Grand Slam singles titles currently place him tied for third place on the all-time list, along with Borg. Only Pete Sampras and Roy Emerson have won more Grand Slam singles titles. Laver may well have won more than eleven Grand Slam singles titles had he not been barred from entering the Slams from 1963-67, due to his professional status. Laver also won eight Grand Slam doubles titles.

While there are other players who also have a claim to the title of the greatest male tennis player of all time, many would argue that Laver is, at the very least, among the best six or seven men ever to play tennis. Some fans consider him to be the greatest ever primarily because he is the only player (male or female) to have achieved the Grand Slam twice. An authoritative dissenting voice comes from Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter, and himself a candidate as the best player of all time. In his 1979 autobiography, Kramer ranks Laver only in the "second echelon" of great players, just behind the six best. Kramer considered the best player ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best. He writes that although Laver was "absolutely unbeatable for a year or two late in the 1960s", a "careful comparison" could be made between Laver and the somewhat older Pancho Gonzales and that Kramer is "positive that Gonzales could have beaten Laver regularly. Hoad owned Laver before Hoad was hurt, and Rosewall beat Laver in those two World Championship of Tennis finalsâ€"and that was a title Laver really wanted." In a famous meeting, a US$10,000 winner-take-all match before 15,000 in Madison Square Garden in February, 1970, the 41-year-old Gonzales beat Laver, still the No. 3 player in the world, in five sets.

Still, many experts such as Dan Maskell, John Barrett, Ted Schroeder, and Tony Trabert continue to rank Laver as the best of all time. The late Ted Schroeder is quoted by Alan Trengove: "You take all the criteria - longevity, playing on grass and clay, amateur, professional, his behaviour, his appearance - in all criteria, Laver's the best player of all time." The experts cite as evidence the fact that in a career as an amateur, as a Kramer touring pro, and as a professional in the Open era, he won a record 184 singles titles. He also holds the record for most titles won in a single season during the amateur era (21 in 1962), in the touring pro era (18 in 1967), and in the Open era (17 in 1969). After turning professional in 1963 he won the U.S. Pro Championships 5 times and the Wembley Pro Championship 4 times between 1964 and 1967, and two more in 1969 and 1970, when it was called 'British Covered Court Championships'. In 1967 he won a "Pro Grand Slam": the U.S. Pro, Wembley Pro, French Pro Championship, and Wimbledon Pro. And in a poll by the Associated Press in 2000, he was voted "The Male Tennis Player of the Century", ahead of Pete Sampras, Bill Tilden, Björn Borg, Donald Budge, John McEnroe and Lew Hoad (tied), Ken Rosewall and Roy Emerson (tied), Jack Kramer.

In his 1989 book, My Life with the Pros, Bud Collins writes: "I remain unconvinced that there ever was a better player than Rod Laver". Thirteen years later, however, as editor of the massive Total Tennis, The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia (2003), Collins is more guarded. He writes on page 693 that Laver would "be known as possibly the greatest player ever." On page 673, however, Collins says that Gonzales was "probably as good as anyone who ever played the game, if not better." And on page 749 he calls Bill Tilden "perhaps the greatest player of them all."

Laver was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981.

After retiring from tennis

In July 1998, Laver suffered a major stroke while being interviewed by ESPN for a series on greatest athletes of the 20th Century. Characteristically, tennis played an important role in his recovery.

In 2000, the centre court at Melbourne Park, which today hosts the Australian Open, was named the Rod Laver Arena in his honour.

In 2003, Laver, along with fellow Australian tennis superstar Margaret Smith Court, was honoured with his portrait on a postage stamp by the "Australia Post Australian Legends Award".

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (11)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1960	Australian Championships	Neale Fraser	5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6, 8-6
1961	Wimbledon Championships	Chuck McKinley	6-3, 6-1, 6-4
1962	Australian Championships (2)	Roy Emerson	8-6, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4
1962	French Championships	Roy Emerson	3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 9-7, 6-2
1962	Wimbledon Championships (2)	Marty Mulligan	6-2, 6-2, 6-1
1962	U.S. Championships	Roy Emerson	6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
Open Era:
1968	Wimbledon (2)	Tony Roche	6-3, 6-4, 6-2
1969	Australian Open (3)	Andres Gimeno	6-3, 6-4, 7-5
1969	French Open (2)	Ken Rosewall	6-4, 6-3, 6-4
1969	Wimbledon (4)	John Newcombe	6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
1969	U.S. Open (2)	Tony Roche	7-9, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2

Runner-ups (6)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1959	Wimbledon Championships	Alex Olmedo	6-4, 6-3, 6-4
1960	Wimbledon Championships	Neale Fraser	6-4, 3-6, 9-7, 7-5
1960	U.S. Championships	Neale Fraser	6-4, 6-4, 9-7
1961	Australian Championships	Roy Emerson	1-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
1961	U.S. Championships	Roy Emerson	7-5, 6-3, 6-2
Open Era:
1968	French Open	Ken Rosewall	6-3, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2

Singles titles in the Open Era (39)

* 1968 - Wimbledon, Los Angeles
* 1969 - Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, Philadelphia WCT
* 1970 - Queen's Club, Los Angeles, Louisville, Montreal / Toronto, Philadelphia WCT, South Orange, St Louis WCT
* 1971 - Berkeley, Bologna WCT, Fort Worth WCT, London, Rome
* 1972 - Denver WCT, Houston WCT, Philadelphia WCT, Richmond WCT, Toronto WCT
* 1973 - Hong Kong, Miami WCT, Richmond WCT, Sydney Indoor, Toronto WCT
* 1974 - Bretton Woods, Houston, Las Vegas, Palm Desert WCT, Philadelphia WCT, Tokyo WCT
* 1975 - Caracas WCT, La Costa WCT, Orlando WCT, Sao Paulo WCT

Note: These are only the ATP registered tournament titles.

Overall singles titles of Rod Laver 1960-1975 (163):

Sources: Joe McCauley, History of Professional Tennis, London 2001;Michel Sutter, Vainqueurs-Winners 1946-1991, Paris 1992; Rod Laver (with Bud Collins), The Education of a Tennis Player, New York 1971; John Barrett: World of Tennis Yearbook 1975, London 1976.

Amateur titles 1960-1962

1960: Brisbane Australian Champ., Lausanne, Newport, Philadelphia, South Orange, Southampton. N.Y. (6).

1961: Wimbledon, Adelaide, Auckland, Bad Neuenahr, Brisbane, Caracas, Deauville, Hamburg German Champ., Houston, Kingston, Melbourne, Sydney, Sydney Metropolitan (13).

1962: Sydney Australian Champ., Paris French Champ., Wimbledon, Forest Hills US Champ., Bournemouth BHC, Brisbane, Brisbane Hard Courts, Connaugh, Dublin Irish Champ., Gstaad Swiss Champ., Hamburg German Champ., Hilversum Dutch Champ., Houston, Lugano, Melbourne, Oslo, Palermo, Queen's Club, Rome Italian Champ., Sydney (21).

Professional titles 1963-1967

1963: Cannes, Kitzbühl, Nordwijk-on-Sea (3).

1964: Boston US Pro, Wembley London Pro, Geneve, Johannesburg, Monterrey, Perth, Port Elizabeth, Salisbury (8).

1965: Wembley London Pro, Adelaide, Cannes, Durban, Lake Tahoe, Capetown, Hobart, Los Angeles R.R., Melbourne, Nairobi, New York US Pro Indoor, Newport R.R., Oklahoma, Rhodesia, San Rafael (15).

1966: Boston US Pro, Wembley London Pro, Binghampton, Brisbane, Cannes, Capetown, Forest Hills R.R., Johannesburg, Melbourne, Perth (10).

1967: Wimbledon Pro, Boston US Pro, Wembley London Pro, Paris French Pro, Paris Indoor, Binghampton, Boston Garden, Brisbane, Fort Worth, Marseille, Miami, London BBC 2, New York US Pro Indoor, New York Madison Square Garden, Newport R.R., Oklahoma, Orlando, San Diego, San Juan (18).

Titles at the begin of Open era 1968-1975

1968: Wimbledon, Boston US Pro, Paris French Pro, Buenos Aires, Corpus Christi, La Paz, Los Angeles PSW Open, London Indoor, London BBC 2, New York Madison Square Garden, Sao Paulo (11).

1969: Brisbane Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open, South African Open, Boston US Pro, Wembley British Indoor, Anaheim, Baltimore, Binghampton, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, London BBC 2, Madrid, New York Madison Square Garden Invitational, Orlando, Philadelphia US Pro Indoor, St. Louis (18).

1970: Canadian Open, South African Open, Wembley British Indoor, Fort Worth WCT, Louisville WCT, Los Angeles PSW Open, New York Champions Classic, Philadephia US Pro Indoor, Queen's Club, South Orange, St. Louis WCT, Sydney, Vancouver WCT (13).

1971: Rome Italian Open, Berkeley WCT, Bologna WCT, Fort Worth WCT, London Indoor, New York Champions Classic (6).

1972: Denver WCT, Houston WCT, Philadephia US Pro Indoor, Richmond WCT, Toronto WCT (5).

1973: Hong Kong, Miami WCT, Richmond WCT, Sydney Australian Indoor, Toronto WCT (5).

1974: Bretton Woods, Houston WCT, Las Vegas, Palm Desert WCT, Philadelphia US Pro Indoor, Tokyo WCT (6).

1975: Caracas WCT, La Costa WCT, Orlando WCT, Puerto Rico CBS Classic, Sao Paulo WCT (5).

Note: This list of 163 tournament title wins between 1960 and 1975 may still be incomplete. Nevertheless it is far more than the 'official' record of Jimmy Connors with 109 tournament title wins in the open era.

Notes

Other

Rod Laver was so successful a tennis star that in 1970 Adidas made a signature shoe called the "Rod Laver". This shoe has become very popular among footbag players.

.rod laver was also the name of a rapcore band on Screaming Giant Records and Tooth and Nail Records. One song sang the following lyrics: "Rod Laver, Grand Slam title; Let's make some racket!" They released four albums over the course of their musical career. You can still find them on Amazon.com.

Sources

* The Game â€" My 40 Years in Tennis (1979) â€" Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
* The History of Professional Tennis (2003) Joe McCauley
* From where I sit (1988) Dan Maskell (with John Barrett)
* Love Thirty. Three Decades of Champions (1990) Rex Bellamy
* The Style of Rod Laver (1999) Julius Heldman (in: Caryl Phyllips, The Right Set. A Tennis Anthology)
* The Education of a Tennis Player (1971) Rod Laver (with Bud Collins) (ISBN 0-671-21533-7)
* Vainqueurs-Winners 1946-1991 (1992) Michel Sutter (Forewords by Arthur Ashe, Mark Miles)
* ''Advantage Australia. Rod Laver and Margaret Court: Legends of the Grand Slam (2003) Alan Trengove

External links

* International Tennis Hall of Fame profile
* ATP profile
* Official Wimbledon profile
* BBC profile
* Davis Cup record