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© Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum |
In 1956, a slight, red-haired 17-year-old from Rockhampton,
Queensland, made his debut at Wimbledon. Few would have
noticed the lack of progress of Rod Laver. He was beaten
in straight sets in the first round by the Italian Orlando
Sirola, who was unusual in that he stood 6ft 7in and did
not start playing tennis until he was 22. Sirola was Runner-Up
in the doubles that year, while Laver claimed just two games
in losing the Boys’ Singles Final to the American
Ron Holmberg.
But Laver had merely lit a fuse. By the time he made his
final appearance at Wimbledon in 1971 he had been Champion
four times and Runner-Up twice. On the broader world stage
he had eclipsed all argument about his abilities by winning
the Grand Slam twice, in 1962 and again in 1969. In what
are usually the best years of a player's career –
24 to 29 – he was absent from the traditional championships
because he had turned professional. His record is rock solid
as it stands. How much greater would it have been if he
had played all the way through?
In Laver's youth, Australians were either winning the Wimbledon
title or proving an extreme nuisance to those who did. Laver
was to become a focal part of the dynasty, following the
Australian tennis tradition as the youngest of three brothers
who always had a court at home to play on and absorbing
the lessons of history on fitness, technique and tactics
from great coaches. He rose above everyone to become the
best player in the world, a master craftsman on all surfaces.
Laver's Grand Slams involved winning Wimbledon and the
Australian and US Championships on grass, and the French
on clay. The format has changed now in that Wimbledon is
the only championship on grass, while Australia and the
US Open have switched to hardcourts. But there is little
reason to doubt that the left-handed Laver would have triumphed,
whatever the sequence of surfaces he faced.
Laver had been a beaten finalist at Wimbledon in 1959 to
Alex Olmedo, and in 1960 against a fellow Australian Neale
Fraser in what was the first final between two left-handers.
Of the six finals which Laver eventually played at Wimbledon,
it was the longest.
Laver won Wimbledon for the first time in 1961, having
played two five-set matches in the early stages. But he
won the final over the American Chuck McKinley in under
an hour. The following summer Laver came into Wimbledon
an even stronger favourite after winning the titles of Italy,
France, and Germany. At Wimbledon he won each match in straight
sets with the exception of the quarter-final, where he lost
the first set to the Spaniard Manuel Santana. Later
in 1962, Laver signed a professional contract for £50,000.
Increasingly, the forward thinkers in tennis wanted an
end to a situation where the game created big-name "amateurs"
only to see them leave the traditional framework for upfront
rewards in the professional game. The British fought hard
and long for change, none more so than the All England Club,
and in August 1967, there was a significant development
in the staging of a one week eight-man professional event
on the Centre Court at Wimbledon. Not only did Laver win
the tournament against Ken Rosewall in the Final, but the
wheels were turning rapidly towards an open game. In December
1967, the Lawn Tennis Association voted to delete all reference
to amateur and professional players and by the following
April, when the British Hard Court Chanmpionships were staged
at Bournemouth, open tennis became a fact.
In the new era of the game Laver, now approaching his 30th
birthday, did not have things all his own way. Rosewall
stopped him in the French final, and at the US Open Laver
lost in the fourth round to the South African Cliff Drysdale.
Only at Wimbledon did Laver record a Grand Slam title win.
Laver had to beat five Americans on the way, including Stan
Smith and Arthur Ashe, who would become champions in 1972
and 1975. In the final he beat another Australian left-hander,
Tony Roche, and won 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Laver took Wimbledon by the throat in 1969. He was in truly
dominant form, having won the Australian and French titles,
and he beat Drysdale, Ashe and John Newcombe in his last
three matches.
The US Open now stood between Laver and the prize of being
the only man in history to win the Grand Slam twice. Laver
carried on winning as he headed towards the US Open, 23
matches in all, and it transpired that no one was going
to give him the last big title of the year.
The American Dennis Ralston led him by two sets to one
in the fourth round; Roy Emerson, a long-term Australian
mate who Laver beat in three finals on his way to his 1962
Grand Slam, gave him the hardest test of the tournament
in the quarter-finals; then Laver ran through Ashe and Roche
for the Slam.
Rain delayed the final, a helicopter was brought in to
suck some of the moisture out of the court at Forest Hills,
and Laver – sometimes known as the Rockhampton Rocket
– played the match in spiked shoes.
It was a drab day, no setting for such a historic achievement.
But Laver's fellow players knew just how colossal his year
and his career had been. One of his fellow professionals
summed him up: "It is just second nature for him to
go after every ball in practice, even the no-chance kind,
and not let it bounce more than once. He has made himself
want to hit every ball regardless of the circumstances.
This attitude transfers to matches."
Written by Barry Newcombe
ROD LAVER
Singles Champion: 1961, 1962, 1968, 1969
Singles Runner-up: 1959, 1960
Doubles Champion: 1971
Doubles Runner-up: 1959
Mixed Champion: 1959, 1960
