Rod Laver

Rod Laver

Rodney George "Rod" Laver MBE (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player who holds the record for most singles titles won in the history of tennis, with 200 career titles. He was ranked World No. 1 for seven consecutive years, from 1964 to 1970 (from 1964 to 1967 in the professional circuit). He is the only tennis player, male or female to have twice won the Grand Slam (all four major singles titles in the same year) – first as an amateur in 1962 and second as a professional in 1969. He is the only male player and was the first player, male or female, to have won the Grand Slam during the open era (Margaret Court achieving this same feat the very next year, in 1970; and in 1988 Steffi Graf also achieved this feat). Laver won a total of nineteen major tournaments, including eleven Grand Slam tournament titles and eight Pro Slam titles. In 1967, Laver also won the Professional Grand Slam. In addition he won nine Championship Series titles (1970–75) the precursors to the current Masters 1000. Laver won and excelled on all the surfaces of his time (grass, clay and wood/parquet), and was ranked as the best professional player in the world during the five-year period he was excluded from the Grand Slam tournaments. Rod Laver is the second and last male player to win each major title twice in his career. Only Roy Emerson and Margaret Court had won all four Grand Slam tournaments twice before Laver in the history of tennis. Laver is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players yet seen. In addition to these singles slams, mentioned previously, Laver also won 6 men's doubles slams and 3 mixed doubles slams.