Rodney George Laver AC, MBE (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player widely regarded as one of the greatest in the history of the sport.[b] He was the No. 1 ranked professional from 1964 to 1970, spanning four years before and three years after the start of the Open Era in 1968. He also was the No. 1 ranked amateur in 1961–62.[3]Laver's 200 singles titles are the most in tennis history. This included his all-time men's record of 10 or more titles per year for seven consecutive years (1964–70). He excelled on all of the court surfaces of his time: grass, clay, hard, carpet, and wood/parquet.
Laver won 11 Grand Slam singles titles, though he was banned from playing those tournaments for the five years prior to the Open Era. Laver is the only player to twice achieve the calendar-year Grand Slam, in 1962 and 1969, and the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era. He also won eight Pro Slam titles, including the "pro Grand Slam"[13][14] in 1967, and he contributed to five Davis Cup titles for Australia during an age when Davis Cup was deemed as significant as the Grand Slams.
Career
Amateur (1956–62)
Laver was a young boy when he left school to pursue a tennis career that lasted 24 years. He was coached in Queensland by Charlie Hollis and later by the Australian Davis Cup team captain Harry Hopman, who gave Laver the nickname "Rocket".
Laver was both Australian and US Junior champion in 1957. He had his
breakthrough on the world stage in 1959, when he reached all three
finals at Wimbledon, winning the mixed doubles title with Darlene Hard. As an unseeded player, he lost the singles final to Peruvian Alex Olmedo after surviving an 87-game semifinal against American Barry MacKay. His first major singles title was the Australian Championships in 1960, where he defeated fellow Australian Neale Fraser
in a five-set final after coming back from two sets down and saving a
Fraser championship point in the fourth set. Laver captured his first
Wimbledon singles crown in 1961.In 1962, Laver became the first male player since Don Budge in 1938 to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same year and won an additional 18 titles (22)[23] in all. Among those titles were the Italian Championships and the German Championships, giving Laver the "clay court triple" of Paris, Rome, and Hamburg that had been achieved previously only by Lew Hoad in 1956. The biggest hurdle to Laver's winning the Grand Slam was the French Championships on slow clay, where Laver won three consecutive five-setters beginning with the quarterfinals. In his quarterfinal with Martin Mulligan, Laver saved a matchpoint in the fourth set with a backhand volley after coming to the net behind a second serve. In the final, Laver lost the first two sets and was down 0–3 in the fourth set before coming back to defeat Roy Emerson. At Wimbledon, his progress was much easier. Laver lost only one set the whole tournament, to Manuel Santana in a quarterfinal, who held a set point for a two set lead. At the US Championships, Laver lost only two sets during the tournament and defeated Emerson again in the final.
In February 1963, he appeared on the panel game show To Tell the Truth, where all four panelists identified him based on his knowledge of the history of tennis.[24]
Professional
Before the Open Era (1963–68)
In December 1962 Laver turned professional after winning the Davis Cup with the Australian team. After an initial period of adjustment he quickly established himself among the leading professional players such as Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad and Andrés Gimeno, and also Pancho Gonzales when Gonzales returned to a full-time schedule in 1964. During the next seven years, Laver won the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships five times, including four in a row beginning in 1966.
In 1964, Laver and Rosewall both won seven important titles (in minor tournaments Laver won four and Rosewall won three), but Laver won 15 of 19 matches against Rosewall and captured the two most prestigious titles, the US Pro Championships over Gonzales and the Wembley Championships over Rosewall. In tennis week, Raymond Lee has described the Wembley match, where Laver came from 5–3 down in the fifth set to win 8–6, as possibly their best ever and one that changed tennis history. Lee regards this win as the one that began and established Laver's long reign as world number one. The other prestige title, the French pro, was won by Rosewall.
In 1965, Laver was clearly the No. 1 professional player,[27] winning 17 titles[28] and 13 of 18 matches against Rosewall. In ten finals, Laver won eight against the still dangerous Gonzales.
In 1966, Laver won 16 events,[28] including the US Pro Championships, the Wembley Pro Championship, and eight other important tournaments.
In 1967, Laver won 19 titles,[28] including the Wimbledon Pro, the US Pro Championships, the Wembley Pro Championship, and the French Pro Championship, which gave him a clean sweep of the most important professional titles, a professional Grand Slam. The tournament in 1967 on Wimbledon's Centre Court was the only professional event ever staged on that court before the Open Era began. Laver beat Rosewall in the final 6–2, 6–2, 12–10.
During the Open Era (1968–76)
With the dawn of the Open Era in 1968, professional players were once again allowed to compete in Grand Slam events. Laver became Wimbledon's first Open Era champion in 1968, beating the best amateur, American Arthur Ashe, in a semifinal and fellow-Australian Tony Roche in the final, both in straight sets.[29][30] Laver was also the runner-up to Ken Rosewall in the first French Open. In this first "open" year, there were only eight open events besides Wimbledon and the French Open, where professionals, registered players, and amateurs could compete against each other. The professionals mainly played their own circuit, with two groups – National Tennis League (NTL) and World Championships Tennis (WCT) – operating. Laver was ranked No. 1 universally, winning the US Professional Championships on grass and the French Pro Championship on clay (both over John Newcombe).[31] Laver also won the last big open event of the year, the Pacific Southwest in Los Angeles on hard courts.[32] Ashe regarded Laver's 4–6, 6–0, 6–0 final win over Ken Rosewall as one of his finest performances.[33] Laver's post-match comment was, "This is the kind of match you always dream about. The kind you play at night in your sleep."
In the early 1970s, Laver lost his grip on the major tournaments. He played only five Grand Slam tournaments from 1970 through 1972. This was partly because of his contracts with NTL and WCT. But on the WCT tours, he remained the leading player and by far the leading prize money winner.
In 1970, Laver won 15 titles[28] and US$201,453 in prize money, including the rich "Tennis Champions Classic" and five other big events (Sydney Dunlop Open, Philadelphia, Wembley, Los Angeles, South African Open). Those were the equivalent of the modern day ATP Masters Series. With only two majors played by all the best players (Wimbledon and the US Open), there was no clear-cut World No. 1 in 1970. Wimbledon champion Newcombe, US champion Rosewall, and Laver (who won the most titles and had a 3–0 win-loss record against Newcombe and a 5–0 record against Rosewall) were ranked the highest by different journalists and expert panels. Although Newcombe was top ranked by Lance Tingay, Newcombe wrote later in his autobiography "Newk-Life on and off the Court" (2002) that the top honour in 1970 belonged to Laver.
In 1971 he won seven titles,[28] including the Italian Open in Rome on clay over Jan Kodeš, the reigning French Open champion. Laver successfully defended his title at the "Tennis Champions Classic", winning 13 consecutive winner-take-all matches against top opponents and US$160,000. For the year, Laver won a then-record US$292,717 in tournament prize money and became the first tennis player to surpass US$1 million in career prize money. In 1971 and 1972, Laver finished as 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 1972, Laver cut back his tournament schedule, partly because of
back and knee injuries and his tennis camp businesses, but he still won
five titles[28] that year. In 1973, Laver won seven titles[28] and successfully participated in the semifinals and final of the Davis Cup, where he won all six of his rubbers for Australia. In 1974 Laver won six titles[28]
from 13 tournaments and ended the year as World No. 4 on the computer.
At 36, he was the oldest player during the Open Era to have been
included in the year-ending top five.
In 1975, Laver set a record for WCT tournaments by winning four
titles and 23 consecutive matches but in 1976, he semi-retired from the
main tour, playing only a few selected events. He also signed with World Team Tennis, where he became "Rookie of the Year" at the age of 38 but won five titles[34] overall that season.Overall, despite turning 30 just months after the Open Era began, Laver had tremendous success, winning 74 singles titles, which remains sixth most of the era. Plus, like most players of his day, he regularly played doubles, winning 37 titles.
