Rod Laver feels calendar-year Grand Slam is still possible
One of the legends of the sport – Rod Laver recently spoke about a possibility of some completing a calendar slam, saying it is possible.
"It's got to happen again," the Australian said. Laver's first calendar-year Grand Slam came during the amateur era. He then turned pro — "I said, 'I can't afford to stay this way. I haven't made anything out of the game,'" Laver said.
The following year he was eager to compete again. “You don't say, 'I'm going to win the Grand Slam.' It's a nine-month title," said Laver.
"I told my wife, 'I want to enter all four of them.' And she says, 'Well, go ahead. It's your life with tennis.' And so I arrived down here, and she called me up and said she was pregnant. The due date was the exact date of the U.S. Open final."
Completing the second Slam, this time against professionals, "gave me the satisfaction ... that I could do it with all the players at the tournament," Laver added.
Back during those times, 3 of the 4 slams were played on Grass with the French Open played on Clay. So how did Laver managed winning the French Open? "And bit by bit," he said, "I found some of the secrets that they did. It was, of course, quite a different sport back then.”
A pair of shoes would last him six months; today's pros sometimes change their shoes between sets. "If you wear out a pair of shoes in a match," Laver said with a smile, "I'm thinking, 'Was that because of a lot of running? Or is it just not a very good shoe?"
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2TczVOE
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