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Australian Open 2011: Of Rod Laver and Rafael Nadal, Grand Slams and GOATs
Published: January 13, 2011
Quite right, then, that he goes into the Australian Open strongly tipped to become the first man since Rod Laver, who accomplished the feat 41 years ago, to hold all four Majors at the same time. Whatever the name this achievement is given—the Rafa Slam, or perhaps the mini-Slam—there is one man who remains certain what it is not: a Grand Slam.
That man is one of the very few who has the right to comment: Laver himself.
Were it anyone else, there might be accusations of immodesty, perhaps of sour grapes, that he should respond thus to what would be a landmark for the remarkable Spaniard. But Laver is both the epitome of modesty and, in any debate about who is the greatest player of all time, the yardstick against whom all others are measured.
Even those who never saw him play, who have only heard tell of his achievements, bracket him with Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, with Don Budge and Pancho Gonzalez, with Bill Tilden and Jack Kramer.
And were it not for his five-year professional hiatus before the arrival of the Open era, most believe Laver would have put the “GOAT” question beyond argument.
Between 1963 and the Australian Open in January 1968, he was in his prime, reaching his full potential, winning Majors by the handful. Had he remained an amateur, he could have played in 21 more Majors. As it is, he won only 11, but those 11 produced two calendar Grand Slams: one in the amateur era, one in the Open.
Laver was born Aug. 9th, 1938—and in a quirk of timing, Federer and Sampras would have birthdays within the same four-day period.
At 15, Laver missed two months from school with jaundice and, feeling left behind in his studies, decided to get a job and work at his tennis. Though he...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis
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