Sport: The Respectable Rocket

In 1963, after blasting every amateur in sight off the courts, Rod Laver decided to cash in on what he thought were the riches and glamour of the professional tennis circuit. He soon had second thoughts. In his U.S. pro debut he met Barry MacKay on a canvas court that had been spread across the undulating wood planking covering the Boston Garden ice-hockey rink. “Trying to return Barry’s big serve on that bumpy court,” recalls Laver, “was like trying to swat jackrabbits with a broom. ‘Jesus,’ I thought, ‘so this is the pro tennis tour?’ “

Laver lost 19 of his first 21 pro matches, and tennis seemed a terrible grind. In his new book, The Education of a Tennis Player, he recalls nosebleeds and oddly flying shots in the 12,000-ft. heights of La Paz, Bolivia, where “we killed ourselves to win a $600 watch, blood streaming down our faces and the balls zooming everywhere.” In Khartoum he and three other pros played for a share of $1,000 in a match that ended with a “bug curfew” —a descending swarm of angry insects. He tells of matches on makeshift courts that were a yard too wide, of volleying on a blocked-off street in downtown St. Louis to let people know “that we were alive and playing,” and of the art of lobbing shots through the rafters of bandbox arenas. Those were the “gypsy days,” he says, when “we dressed in our cars and showered some other time,” when “we were on the run every minute, grabbing hotdogs, getting to bed about three every morning, driving, driving, driving.”

One Regret. Last week, as Laver sought to defend his No. 1 seeding in the Wimbledon championships, his chronicle served as a fitting reminder of how far and how fast the pro game has progressed. It was just three seasons ago that the overseers of Wimbledon revitalized tennis by opening their tournament for the first time to pros as well as amateurs. Several other major tournaments have since followed suit, and the added competition has increased both fan interest and purses. Going into Wimbledon last week, Rod the Rocket had already won a record $195,135 for the year. With half the season still to go, it is possible that he may top $300,000—a figure not even dreamed of by those most affluent of athletes, the pro golfers.

Though recognized as the most accomplished player in the game today, the bandylegged little redhead with the maddening, wristy spinshots is by no means a shoo-in at Wimbledon. Laver not only faces the usual stern competition from fellow Aussies Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe, but he must also contend with such fast-rising young stars as rangy Stan Smith of the U.S. Now 32, the Rocket has only one regret about the increasing number of young players who are able to make a career out of tennis. Recalling how he felt in 1968 when he was allowed to return to Wimbledon, he points out that the newcomers will never know “the elation of being recognized as respectable men again.”