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The Rockhampton Rocket: Rod Laver With 'Popeye's' left arm, the Rockhampton Rocket, red hair and freckles exploded onto the tennis scene in 1959. The world reeling from the exploits of Harry Hopman and his Australian production line, including Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall, was to recognise Rod Laver as the jewel in the crown.
Rod Laver was so scrawny and sickly as a child in the Australian bush that no one could guess he would become a left-handed whirlwind who would conquer the tennis world and be known as possibly the greatest player ever. A few well-meaning coaches advised Rod to temporise more of his shots if he wanted to win a big tournament. It went in one ear and out the other, and Laver rose to the greatest heights of the game. His shots were breathtaking, his talent enormous and his drive to be number one made him the most successful tennis player in history. A little more than a month before Don Budge completed the first Grand Slam, Rodney George Laver was on born August 9, 1938, at Rockhampton, Queensland, in Australia. Despite lack of size and early infirmities, Laver grew strong and tough on his father's cattle property and emulated Budge by making the second male Grand Slam in 1962 as an amateur - then became the only double Grand Slammer seven years later by taking the major singles (Australian, French, Wimbledon, U.S.) as a professional.
Few champions have been as devastating and dominant as Laver was as amateur and professional during the 1960s. An incessant attacker, he was nevertheless a complete player who glowed in backcourt ad at the net. Laver stood five foot eight and a half inch, his 145lb body seemed to dangle from a massive left arm that belonged to a gorilla, an arm with which he bludgeoned the ball and was able to impart ferocious topspin. Although others had used topspin, Laver may have inspired a wave of heavy-hitting topspin practitioners of the 1970s such as Bjorn Borg and Guillermo Vilas. The stroke became basic after the Rocket. As a teenager he was sarcastically nicknamed "Rocket" by Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman. "He was anything but a Rocket," Hopman recalled. "But Rod was willing to work harder than the rest and it was soon apparent to me that he had more talent than any other of our fine Australian players." His initial international triumph came during his first trip abroad in 1956, when he won the U.S. Junior Championship as a 17-year-old. Three years later he was ready to take his place among the world's best when he won the Australian singles and with Bob Mark, the doubles, becoming runner-up to Alex Olmedo for the Wimbledon championship. The Australian victories were the first of Laver's 20 major titles in singles, doubles and mixed placing him fifth among all-time male winners behind Roy Emerson (28), John Newcombe (25), Frank Sedgman (22), Bill Tilden (21), while one of the Four Musketeers Jean Borotra also won 20. His 11 singles (equaled by Bjorn Borg) were second to Emerson's 12. The losing Wimbledon final of 1959 was the beginning of an incredible run of success in that tournament. He was a finalist six straight times he entered, losing in 1960 to Neale Fraser, but winning in 1961 and 1962. After a five-year absence because professionals were barred he was winning again in 1968 and 1969. Only two others had played in six successive finals, back before the turn of the century: William Renshaw from 1881 through 1886 and Wilfred Baddely, 1891 through 1896. Borg played in six straight final from 1976 through 1981. While winning Wimbledon four straight times (the only man since World War I to win four prior to Borg) and proceeding to the fourth round in 1970, Laver set a male tournament record 31 consecutive match wins, ended by his loss to Roger Taylor, and eclipsed by Borg in 1980. The year 1969 was Laver's finest, perhaps the best experienced by any player, as he won a open-era record 17 singles tournaments (tied by Guillermo Vilas in 1977) of 32 played on a 106-16 match record. In 1962 he won 19 tournaments out of 34 and had a 134-15 win-loss record. Unlike his Grand Slam year of 1962 as an amateur, he was playing in tournaments that were to all, amateur and pro, and this Slam was more impressive. It was endangered only a few times when Tony Roche forced him to a fifth set exhausting 90-game semifinal in the Australian championships 7-5, 22-20, 9-11, 1-6, 6-3; Dick Crealy winning the first two sets of a second-rounder in the French; Premjit Lall winning two sets of a second-rounder at Wimbledon; Stan Smith threatening in the fifth set of a fourth-rounder at Wimbledon; Arthur Ashe and Newcombe pushing him to four sets in the Wimbledon semifinal and final (6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4); Dennis Ralston leading 2 sets to 1 in the fourth round of the U.S.; Roche winning the opening set of the mucky U.S. final, 7-9, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 (which Laver played in spikes). But that year Laver could always accelerate to a much higher gear and bang his way out of trouble. The closest anyone came to puncturing either Slam was Marty Mulligan, who held a point in the fourth set of their French quarterfinal in 1962, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 10-8, 6-2.
After his second year running as the No. 1 1962, and helping Australia win a fourth Davis Cup, Laver turned pro. It was a life of one-nighters, but Pancho Gonzalez was no longer supreme. Ken Rosewall was at the top and gave Laver numerous beatings as their long, illustrious rivalry began. Rosewall beat Laver to win the U.S. Pro singles in 1963, but the next year defeated Rosewall and Gonzalez to win the first of his five crowns, four of them in a row beginning in 1966. He had a streak of 19 wins in the U.S. until losing the 1970 final to Roche. Gonzalez pointing for a ninth crown in the 1964 final, was a formidable afternoon. Astonishingly the show went on--the pros were that way in that day--in a raging nor'easter that swept Boston with a blustery downpour, turning Longwood's grassy stadium to a bog. They slipped and fell, but both proud men were up to it, somehow producing fabulous shots. In the rain Laver signaled the end of Pancho's reign, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. When open tennis dawned in 1968, Laver was ready to resume where he'd left off at the traditional tournaments, whipping Roche in less than an hour, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, to take the first open Wimbledon. In 1971 Laver won $292,717 in tournament prize money (a season record that stood until Arthur Ashe won $338,337 in 1975), the figure enabling him to become the first tennis player to make a million dollars on the court. Until the last days of 1978, when he was playing few tournaments, Laver was still the all-time leading money-winner with $1,564,213. Jimmy Connors then surpassed him. In 1973 all professionals were permitted to play Davis Cup, and Laver honed himself for one last effort after 11 years away. He was brilliant, teaming with John Newcombe to end a five-year U.S. reign 5-0. Laver beat Tom Gorman in five sets on the first day and paired with Newcombe for a crushing straight-set doubles victory over Stan Smith and Erik van Dillen that clinched the Cup, Laver's fifth. Of all the marvelous Aussie Davis Cup performers he was the only one never to play in a losing series.
He was also a factor in winning three World Cups in 1972, 1974 and 1975 for Australia in the since disbanded team competition against the U.S. In 1976, as his tournament career was winding down, Laver signed with San Diego in World Team Tennis and was named the league's Rookie of the Year at age 38! During a 23-year career that spanned the amateur and open eras, he won 47 professional titles in singles and was runner-up 21 times. His 13 years in the world's top ten spanned 16 years, from 1959 to 1975. He was the world´s number one player in 1961, 1962, 1968 and 1969. The last year he was there was No. 10 at age 37. Grand Slam Record Australian Singles 1960, 1962, 1969; Singles finalist 1961; Doubles 1959-1961, 1969; Mixed finalist 1959 French Singles 1962, 1969; Singles finalist 1968; Doubles 1961; Doubles finalist 1968-1969; Mixed 1961; Mixed finalist 1969 Wimbledon Singles 1961-1962, 1968-1969; Singles finalist 1959-1960; Doubles 1971; Doubles finalist 1959; Mixed finalist 1959, 1960 U.S. Championships Singles 1962, 1969; Singles finalist 1960-1961; Doubles finalist 1960, 1970, 1973 Tournament Record (ex-Davis Cup and Olympics) Italian Championships Singles 1962, 1971; Singles finalist 1961; Doubles 1962 Australian Davis Cup Team member 1959-1962, 1973; winning side 1959-1962, 1973 |
