TennisWorthy: Dedication Took Rod Laver Where No One Has Ever Gone
Imagine having a dream – a dream of becoming a champion at an activity you love. But to bring that dream to life you must do something no one else has ever done. Being a trailblazer will require dedication, perseverance and even a good amount of creativity.
Born in 1938, Rod Laver began to play tennis in rural Queensland, in the Australian outback, where he hit tennis balls on a family court made from an ant bed. “I was this little lefthander, just hoping my two older brothers would play a bit with me,” Laver said years later.
The word “lefthander” is vital. In the late ‘40s, Laver’s coach, Charlie Hollis, told the young boy that only once had a lefthander won the game’s most prestigious title, Wimbledon. And that win had happened before World War I. Never had a lefthander been ranked number one in the world.
One major reason for this lack of southpaw success was quite simple. Just about any lefty who played tennis was used to hitting an excessive amount of forehands, due to right-handed opponents often aiming to the ball to what was usually a right-hander’s backhand (often considered the weaker side). The result was that lefthanders were highly imbalanced, typically graced with superb forehands but terrible backhands.
“I wanted to be the best player I could possibly be,” said Laver, “and so to do that I would have to work really hard to build a versatile, powerful backhand – not just a hack slice, but a quality topspin drive.”
Trying to go where no lefty had gone before, Laver was committed to a long-term vision and therefore willing to sacrifice short-term gain. He built a playing style based on topspin off both his forehand and backhand – aggressive, bold drives that in his formative years often flew well outside the lines.
In 1952, the year he turned 14, Laver first met Harry Hopman, then in the middle of what would be a 30-year reign as the Australian Davis Cup captain and nominal leader of all matters related to tennis Down Under. Hopman recognized Laver’s potential, but he also wanted to motivate the youngster to work even harder. So it was that a couple of days into watching the boy play at his clinic, Hopman said Rod was “one of the slowest lads in the class” and nicknamed him “Rocket.” But without telling Laver, Hopman also discreetly told a few other people that at some point, the boy would indeed start moving faster and that those errant shots would eventually become deadly.
And so Laver’s dedication continued. To build up the strength he believed was required to strike the ball aggressively, Laver began to carry an old tennis ball and constantly squeeze it. When an attack of jaundice took him away from the game for six weeks, he returned with even more drive. “I couldn’t wait to get back onto the court,” Laver wrote in his memoir years later. “Not being to play tennis had driven me crazy. Among the many things that my parents and Charlie Hollis had inspired in me was a deep love of the game, and now Harry Hopman had his eye on me. If I could have, I would have played and trained all day and night.”
Though the young Rod generated his share of results, through his teens he was also erratic, building a reputation as an engaging but streaky player. But by the time he was 22, the pieces had come together. In 1961, Laver won his first Wimbledon singles title. Hopman’s prophecy had come true; fueled completely, of course, by Laver’s relentless work ethic.
A year later, the incredible happened. Prior to 1962, only one man, American Don Budge, had won all four of tennis’ prestigious major titles in a calendar year. So it was that in ’62, Laver swept through each – the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US titles. It was an amazing feat no other man has done since.
But in the wake of his great effort in ’62, Laver knew there was more work to be done. Tennis then was a bifurcated sport. Amateurs like Laver were barred from earning prize money (though they were often granted random sums under-the-table), but remained eligible to compete at the prestigious, high-visibility events. Meanwhile, another small group of men such as Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad and Pancho Gonzalez competed as full-fledged pros, legitimately earning money for their efforts – but also often in obscurity, as they were banned from such tournaments as Wimbledon and the US Championships. But Laver knew the time had come to turn pro. As he put it, “I wanted to prove I could play with the very best.”
In a certain sense, Laver was starting over as a tennis player. Of his first 21 matches versus Hoad and Rosewall, Laver won but two. “It was a sharp learning curve for me,” Laver said of his early matches as a pro, adding that, “at times I wondered if I would ever make it as a pro.”
But the perseverance that had taken Laver to the top of the amateur world continued as a pro. He improved his serve, sharpened his volleys, and carefully studied the tactical decisions made by his rivals. And on a tour that could typically cover 20 cities in 20 nights, Laver also soon mastered all the nuances of the barnstorming life – sleep, diet, jet lag, practice.
By the end of 1963, his first year as a pro, Laver was ranked only behind Rosewall. A year later, he reached the pinnacle. He would hold that spot for the balance of the decade, capping it off in 1969 with another sweep of all four majors – one year after tennis had at last become an open sport, amateurs and pros all competing together at the same events all over the world. The dreams of a young boy had all come true, all the result of Rod Laver’s tremendous dedication to his craft.
By Joel Drucker, ITHF Historian-At-Large
