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Rod Laver Had 2 Grand Slams! Is He Best Of All Time? No! It’s Not His Fault, But He Only Played On 2 surfaces & No Competition – RI8
Rod Laver Had 2 Grand
Slams! Is He Best Of All
Time? No! It’s Not His
Fault, But He Only Played
On 2 surfaces & No
Competition – RI8
Rodney George “Rod” Laver, born August 9, 1938, in Rockhampton, Australia, won all 4 Major Tennis Tournaments (Australia, French, Wimbledon & U.S.) in 1962 as an amateur and in 1969 as a pro. In between those 2 years, he was prohibited from competing as a pro because only amateurs were allowed. Laver chose to turn pro in 1962.
No other male tennis player has won all 4 Majors in the same year even once. Laver did it twice.
Rod was left-handed, 5’ 8” tall, and weighed 150 pounds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Laver
Today he would not be No. 1 – no way. He would probably be very good with modern equipment instead of wood rackets, but he would not be great. Ivan Lendl blew away John McEnroe in the French Open after being down 2 sets once he started hitting the bejesus out of the ball. Little Mc was great; he would have been great in Laver’s day, but Lendl overpowered him on clay. Soon everybody played McEnroe that way on all surfaces. McEnroe was just too small and weak to handle modern tennis power. Anyway, we will never know how good Laver could have been because today Rod Laver is 68-years old.
Rod Laver, the Greatest?
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461521146_761579917_-1_1/Rod_Laver.html
All Grand Slams in Laver’s day were played either on grass or clay - not his fault, but he wasn’t challenged. How can you compare Laver’s Grand Slams, accomplished in single years to Andre Agassi’s lifetime Grand Slam, accomplished over a period of years, but on 4 different surfaces? I am more impressed with Agassi. If you’ve played tennis on clay and on any other surface, you know it’s not the same game. Few successful players have ever played serve-and-volley on clay.
In Laver’s day, everyone played with wood rackets - not his fault, but he wasn’t challenged. You cannot compare wood rackets to modern tennis rackets. I have played with wood rackets.
He missed 6 prime years because he turned pro and only amateurs were allowed to compete - not his fault, but if you don’t or can’t play, you can’t win.
Have you ever seen Ken Rosewall play tennis? Rosewall was Laver’s major opponent. It has been said about Rosewall, and rightly so, that his slice backhand would not break an egg. Laver was practically the only player using topspin in the 60s. If Babe Ruth must be penalized because he never played against Blacks - not totally his fault, then Laver must be penalized because nobody else could play the game but him. No competition, no credit.
Ever hear of that great tennis player, Druthian Swat? No? Well, that’s because he was the greatest tennis player in Dimaginery, Oklahoma, but never went to college and competed or turned pro. So we have no way of judging his abilities against the great tennis players of all time.
Blacks from the Negro League have been admitted into the Hall of Fame, but they have no records there because they were not permitted to play. Hall of Fame or NO Hall of Fame, when the greatest of all time are being compared, how do you compare Josh Gibson, perhaps the greatest player of all time but we’ll never know. Yeah, it wasn’t Gibson’s fault. It was the fault of America, land of racism. Gibson was deprived of his opportunity of being in the record books. Unlike Laver, who chose his lot, Gibson had no chance to compete because he was born Black. Had Laver chosen to remain an “amateur”, he might have all the records in his time. He chose not to - his choice. Josh Gibson had no such opportunity. So let’s stop all the “Rod Laver greatest tennis player of all time” talk because he had his chance, but he was born too soon to compete with real players, modern equipment and on all surfaces. The Grand Slams he didn’t win however were not anybody else’s fault but his own. He made his decision because he could. Rod Laver knew the rules when he decided to turn pro; Josh Gibson did not know the rules when he “decided” to be born Black.
Josh Gibson, the greatest?
http://www.classicphotos.com/base/Negro_League/bl-163.jpg
In 1981's 'Body Heat', Kathleen Turner said, "Knowledge is power".
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)