Rod Laver
Rodney " Rod" Laver George ( born August 9, 1938 in Rockhampton ) is a former Australian tennis player.
Laver, who as a professional tennis player is not allowed to participate in Grand Slam tournaments 1963-1967, 1962 was the second player after Don Budge, who won all four tournaments this series in a season and is the only player in tennis history, which this success a second time in his career succeeded (1969). In particular by these successes applies Laver as one of the best players in the late 50s and 60s and in addition Pancho Gonzales, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as one of the best players of all time.
In his 23 -year career, Laver won a record of approximately 200 individual titles, of which only 40 are listed in the official ATP statistics, including 11 Grand Slam tournaments in singles and 6 Titles in this category in doubles. He also won three times in the mixed doubles.
Tennis career
Rod Laver was born in August 1938, about a month before the historic Grand Slam win by Donald Budge. Even as a youth player Laver made successfully attracted attention, as he was able in 1956 to win the U.S. Junior Championship at the age of 17 years. It took three years before he was able to record first major successes on adult tour - after his finals at Wimbledon in 1959, but final by winning the Australian Open in 1960, both in single as well as double, he was among the best players in his sport counted. He was able to confirm further than he again at Wimbledon and at the U.S. Open reached the final, but lost both games this impression in the course of the 1960 season. In the season of 1961 was followed by three more finals at Grand Slam tournaments, Laver said this time was inferior in Australia and again in Forest Hills, but did not win the tournament at Wimbledon, in his third finals in a row for the first time.
The 1962 season should be by far the best season in Lavers previous tennis career. A total of 21 tournament victories were recorded at the end of the season in Lavers statistics, including wins in all four Grand Slam tournaments, which Laver 24 years after Don Budge became the second player who succeeded in winning the Grand Slams. The greatest difficulty Laver revealed here in Roland Garros, where he was three games in succession forced the full distance of five sets in the tournament. In the final against Roy Emerson, he could still turn a clear 0-2 sentence residue.
After winning the Grand Slams to Laver in 1963 decided for a change on the professional tour, which among other things also meant that he was no longer allowed to participate in Grand Slam tournaments until the start of the Open era in 1968. Many experts believe that Laver could show a lot more Grand Slam tournament wins in his statistics today, if he had continued to participate in the amateur tour. In the following years, Laver provided many interesting matches with the stars of professional tour in particular his compatriot Ken Rosewall, Pancho Gonzales and the Americans, who had dominated the pro tour in recent years. Despite initial difficulties in duels with these players Laver could soon be on the professional tour to celebrate their successes and gain among others, the U.S. Pro Singles five times.
In 1968, professional players were allowed for the first time to participate in the Grand Slam tournaments, Laver and played already in this first season of the Open era in the tournament finals at Wimbledon and Roland Garros. At the French Open, he was beaten Ken Rosewall, but at Wimbledon he beat his countryman Tony Roche and thus secured his third Wimbledon title. 1969 Laver succeeded the second Grand Slam win of his career, in retrospect, even more valuable than the first success since he had now overcome their rivals from the professional tour time. In the following years, Laver was able to demonstrate Tournament Win regularly, further success in the Grand Slam tournaments but failed to materialize. After the introduction of the official tennis world rankings in 1973, Laver was able to play it to number 3 on this list and remained until 1975 among the ten best players in the world rankings.
1973 Laver led the Australian team for the fifth time in his career to victory in the Davis Cup. Previously, he had already led his team from 1959 to 1962 four times in a row to win.
In 1981, Rod Laver was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame Sports.
In 2000, the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne was named after him. The Rod Laver Arena is the center court at the Australian Open.