Laver leads the pack
Tennis ace takes out top spot in greatest 100
ROD Laver, who grew up playing tennis on a dirt court on a cattle property outside Rockhampton, was last night named No.1 on our list of the Top 100 Queensland Sports people of all time.
The 80-year-old called it a “tremendous honour”.
The only man to twice win the Grand Slam of tennis recalled his childhood driving out with his two older brothers in an old farm truck to the mouth of the Fitzroy River to bring home riverbank silt for their homegrown court.
Even now “The Rocket’’ is just as happy to talk about catching yabbies in Rockhampton and fishing around Yeppoon as he is about the day he trounced John Newcombe to win the last of his four Wimbledon titles
“Queensland was a wonderful place to grow up,” Laver said. “The weather, the people, the wide open spaces. It has always produced great sporting talent and to be named No.1 is such a thrill.”
Now based in California, Laver is an undisputed giant of the game but there was a time when his playing career hung in the balance.
It was just after Christmas 1962. Tennis was still largely an amateur game and Laver was broke despite having spent the past 12 months winning the Australian, French, Wimbledon, US,
Italian, German, Swiss, Dutch, Irish, Norwegian, British hardcourt and London grasscourt titles. Jack Kramer, the American tennis entrepreneur, had offered him a record $US110,000 to turn professional but it would mean he could not play the world’s biggest events which were still amateur. “We were playing Mexico at the time in the Davis Cup at Milton,” Laver said. He eventually opted to take the deal and was subsequently banned from all amateur tournaments around the world until Open tennis was declared in 1968 and the professionals returned to the big events.
Laver finished with 200 career titles including 11 of the game’s biggest – three Australian singles titles, two French, four Wimbledons and two US championships.
In 1962 and 1969 he completed the Grand Slam – winning the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US titles all in the one year, a feat that has never been repeated.