Rod Laver; An Autobiography

Chicago, IL: Triumph Books, 2016. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xviii, 398 pages. Illustrations (some in color). Foreword by Roger Federer. Index (by Sue Jarvis). Signed by the author on the title page. Edge soiling. Minor DJ wear. Rodney George Laver AC MBE (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. He is widely regarded by many pundits, players and fans to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He was the No. 1 ranked professional from 1964 to 1970, spanning four years before and three years after the start of the Open Era in 1968. He also was the No. 1 ranked amateur in 1961-62. He is the second and last male player to win each grand slam twice after Roy Emerson. Laver's 200 singles titles are the most in tennis history. This included his all-time men's record of 10 or more titles per year for seven consecutive years (1964-70). He excelled on all of the court surfaces of his time: grass, clay, hard, carpet, and wood/parquet. Laver won 11 Grand Slam singles titles, though he was banned from playing those tournaments for the five years prior to the Open Era. Laver is the only player, male or female, to twice achieve a Grand Slam in singles, in 1962 and 1969, and the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era. He also won eight Pro Slam titles, including the "pro Grand Slam" in 1967, and he contributed to five Davis Cup titles for Australia during an age when the Davis Cup was deemed as significant as the four majors. The Laver Cup Tournament and the Rod Laver Arena are named after him. Rod Laver's memoir is the inspiring story of how a diminutive, left-handed, red-headed country boy from Rockhampton, Australia became one of sports' greatest champions. Rod was a dominant force in world tennis for almost two decades, playing and defeating some of the greatest players of the twentieth century. In 1962, Rod became the second man to win the Grand Slam - that is, winning the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US titles in a single calendar year. In 1969, he won it again, becoming the only player ever to win the Grand Slam twice. Laver's book is a wonderfully nostalgic journey into Laver's path to stardom, from the early days of growing up in a Queensland country town in the 1950s, to breaking into the amateur circuit, to the extraordinary highs of Grand Slam victories. Away from on-court triumphs, Rod also movingly writes about the life-changing stroke he suffered in 1998, and of his beloved wife of more than 40 years, Mary, who died in 2012 after a long illness. Filled with anecdotes about the great players and great matches, set against the backdrop of a tennis world changing from rigid amateurism to the professional game we recognize today, Rod's book is a warm, insightful and fascinating account of one of tennis's all-time greats.