Rodney George Laver was born on 9 August 1938 and is an Australian former tennis player.
89 Facts About Rod Laver
2.
Rod Laver was ranked the world number 1 amateur in 1961 by Lance Tingay and 1962 by Tingay and Ned Potter.
3.
Rod Laver excelled on all of the court surfaces of his time: grass, clay, hard, carpet, wood.
4.
Rod Laver won 11 Grand Slam singles titles, though he was banned from playing those tournaments for the five years prior to the Open Era.
5.
Rod Laver is the only player, male or female, to win the Grand Slam twice in singles, in 1962 and 1969; the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era.
6.
Rod Laver is the first male player out of two to be winner and runner up at all four grand slams, followed by Roger Federer.
7.
Rod Laver is the second of four male players to win each major title twice.
8.
Rod Laver won 8 Pro Slam titles, including the "pro Grand Slam" in 1967, and he contributed to five Davis Cup titles for Australia during an age when the Davis Cup was deemed as significant as the four majors.
9.
The Laver Cup tournament and the Rod Laver Arena are named after him.
10.
Rodney George Laver was born in Rockhampton, Australia, on 9 August 1938.
11.
Rod Laver was the third of four children of Roy Laver, a cattleman and butcher, and his wife Melba Roffey.
12.
Rod Laver was a teenager when he left school to pursue a tennis career that lasted 24 years.
13.
Rod Laver was coached in Queensland by Charlie Hollis and later by the Australian Davis Cup team captain Harry Hopman, who gave Laver the nickname "Rocket".
14.
Rod Laver was both Australian and US Junior champion in 1957.
15.
Rod Laver 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.
16.
Rod Laver captured his first Wimbledon singles crown in 1961 beating Chuck McKinley in straight sets in the final, which lasted just 53 minutes.
17.
Rod Laver was ranked the world No 1 amateur in 1961 by Lance Tingay.
18.
In 1962, Rod Laver became the first male player since Don Budge in 1938 to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same year.
19.
Rod Laver won an additional 18 titles, for a season total of 22.
20.
At the Australian championships, Rod Laver beat Roy Emerson in the final.
21.
The biggest hurdle to Rod Laver's winning the Grand Slam was the French Championships on slow clay, where Rod Laver won three consecutive five-setters beginning with the quarterfinals.
22.
Rod Laver lost only one set the whole tournament, to Manuel Santana in a quarterfinal, who held a set point for a two set lead.
23.
At the US Championships, Rod Laver lost only two sets during the tournament and defeated Emerson again in the final.
24.
Rod Laver was ranked world number one amateur for 1962 by Tingay, by Ned Potter and by an Ulrich Kaiser panel of 13 experts.
25.
In December 1962 Rod Laver turned professional after winning the Davis Cup with the Australian team.
26.
However, Rod Laver won the best-of-five set matches against Rosewall at Kooyong Stadium and at Adelaide's Memorial Stadium.
27.
The top two players Rosewall and Rod Laver then played a series of matches against each other to determine the champion.
28.
In 1965, Rod Laver was clearly the No 1 professional player, winning 17 titles and 13 of 18 matches against Rosewall.
29.
In ten finals, Rod Laver won eight against the still dangerous Gonzales.
30.
Rod Laver won the Wembley Pro, beating Gimeno in the final.
31.
In 1966, Rod Laver won 16 events, including the US Pro Championships, the Wembley Pro Championship, and eight other important tournaments.
32.
In 1967, Rod Laver won 19 titles, including the Wimbledon Pro, the US Pro Championships, the Wembley Pro Championships, and the French Pro Championship, which gave him a clean sweep of the four most important professional titles, a professional Grand Slam.
33.
Rod 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.
34.
Rod Laver was the runner-up to Ken Rosewall in the first French Open.
35.
Rod Laver was ranked No 1 universally, winning the US Professional Championships on grass and the French Pro Championship on clay.
36.
Rod Laver won the last big open event of the year, the Pacific Southwest in Los Angeles on hard courts.
37.
In 1969, Rod Laver won all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same calendar year for the second time, sealing the achievement with a four-set win over Roche in the US Open final.
38.
Rod Laver set a record of 31 consecutive match victories at Wimbledon between 1961 and 1970, which lasted until 1980 when it was eclipsed by Bjorn Borg.
39.
Rod Laver's hardest match was a marathon 90-game semifinal against Roche at the Australian Open under tropical hot conditions.
40.
At the French Open, Rod Laver beat Gimeno, Tom Okker, and Rosewall.
41.
At Wimbledon, Rod Laver overcame strong challenges from Stan Smith, Cliff Drysdale, Ashe, and Newcombe.
42.
Rod Laver proved his versatility by winning the Grand Slam tournaments on grass and clay, plus the two most important hard court titles and the leading indoor tournaments.
43.
Rod Laver ranked No 1 for 1969 by the panel of 13 international journalists for the 'Martini and Rossi' Award, by Tingay, by Collins, by Tommasi, by Frank Rostron and by World Tennis.
44.
Rod Laver played only five Grand Slam tournaments from 1970 through 1972.
45.
In 1970, Rod Laver won 15 titles and US$201,453 in prize money, including the rich "Tennis Champions Classic" and five other big events.
46.
Wimbledon champion Newcombe, US champion Rosewall, and Rod Laver were ranked the highest by different journalists and expert panels.
47.
In 1971 Rod Laver won seven titles, including the Italian Open in Rome on clay over Jan Kodes, the reigning French Open champion.
48.
Rod Laver successfully defended his title at the "Tennis Champions Classic", winning 13 consecutive winner-take-all matches against top opponents and US$160,000.
49.
In 1971 and 1972, Rod Laver finished as the points leader of the WCT tournament series but lost the playoff finals at Dallas to Rosewall.
50.
In 1972, Rod Laver cut back his tournament schedule, partly because of back and knee injuries and his tennis camp businesses, but he still won five titles that year.
51.
In 1973, Rod Laver won seven titles and successfully participated in the semifinals and final of the Davis Cup, where he won all six of his rubbers for Australia.
52.
In 1974 Rod Laver won six titles from 13 tournaments and ended the year as World No 4 based on the ATP point system.
53.
In 1975, Rod 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.
54.
Rod Laver signed with World Team Tennis, where he became "Rookie of the Year" at the age of 38 but won five titles overall that season.
55.
Rod Laver had a long-running, friendly rivalry with Ken Rosewall between 1963, when he started out as a pro, and 1976, when both were semi-retired from the main tour.
56.
Rod Laver had another, even longer rivalry with his fellow Queenslander Roy Emerson.
57.
Rod Laver helped Australia win the Davis Cup four consecutive times from 1959 to 1962.
58.
Australia were crowned Davis Cup champions in each of the five seasons Rod Laver played in the competition.
59.
Rod Laver won 16 out of 20 Davis Cup singles matches and all four of his doubles.
60.
Rod Laver's left-handed serve was well disguised and wide swinging.
61.
Rod Laver's backhand, often hit on the run, was a point-ender that gave him an advantage.
62.
Rod Laver was very quick and had a strong left forearm.
63.
Rod Laver was difficult to lob, because of his springing agility, and when forced to retreat, he could come up with a vicious counterpunch.
64.
Rod Laver had to learn to control his adventurous shot-making and integrate percentage tennis into his game when he turned professional.
65.
Rod Laver had a strong record in five-set-matches, often turning things around with subtle changes of tactics.
66.
Rod Laver is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players in the history of the sport.
67.
Rod Laver was ranked the world No 1 amateur in 1961 by Lance Tingay and in 1962 by Tingay and Ned Potter.
68.
Rod Laver was the number one professional in some rankings in 1964, in all rankings from 1965 to 1969 and in some rankings in 1970.
69.
Rod Laver holds the record for most titles won in a single year during the amateur era, during the touring pro era, and during the Open Era.
70.
In 1967, Rod Laver won a "Professional Grand Slam" by winning all four of the major professional tournaments: the US Pro Championships, the Wembley Pro Championships, the French Pro Championship, and the Wimbledon Pro.
71.
Rod Laver came out on top in various experts polls for the best of all time.
72.
Rod Laver ranked first on this list ahead of John McEnroe, Don Budge, Kramer, Bjorn Borg, Gonzales, Tilden, Jimmy Connors, Fred Perry, and Lew Hoad.
73.
Rod Laver topped his list ahead of Tilden and Borg, Roger Federer, Gonzales, Rosewall, Budge, Ivan Lendl, Connors, Sampras, McEnroe, and Kramer.
74.
Rod Laver attained his highest ranking on that computer of World No 3 in 1974.
75.
Rod Laver semi-retired from the main professional tennis tour in 1975 while still being ranked in the top 10.
76.
In terms of yearly prize money won, Rod Laver was the leader from 1964 until 1971.
77.
The number of tournament singles titles that Rod Laver won during his career varies depending on the source.
78.
Rod Laver was unable to compete in the Grand Slam tournaments during his professional career between 1963 and 1968 and it is argued he would likely have won more titles had he been able to do so.
79.
Rod Laver won 11 of the 16 grand slam titles he contested in his prime.
80.
In 1969, Rod Laver was awarded the ABC Sportsman of the Year Award and the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.
81.
Rod Laver was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981.
82.
Rod Laver was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and upgraded to a Legend of Australian Sport in 2002.
83.
Rod Laver was named as a Queensland Great in June 2005.
84.
Also in 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Rod Laver was named one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland.
85.
On 27 July 1998, Rod Laver suffered a stroke while being interviewed by ESPN-TV in the United States for their SportsCentury 20th Century sports retrospective series.
86.
Rod Laver was hospitalised for a month and suffered from memory and speech difficulties after the stroke, but recovered over the course of the following year.
87.
In 1966, Rod Laver married Mary Benson in San Rafael, California.
88.
Mary Rod Laver died in November 2012 at the age of 84 at their home in Carlsbad.
89.
Rod Laver joined the professional tennis circuit in 1963 and as a consequence was banned from competing in the amateur Grand Slams until the start of the Open Era at the 1968 French Open.