Rod Laver: “I’ll be darned” over Rafa’s Loss
When Rafael Nadal was eliminated from the Australian Open competition by David Ferrer on Wednesday, he did not lose just a match, or a chance at a tournament title; he lost the chance to make history. If Rafa had won this year’s Melbourne Grand Slam, he would have been the first man since 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
The last time a male tennis player held this record was forty-two years ago, when Rod Laver won four straight Grand Slams in a calendar year. Even more impressively, Laver managed this feat twice; once in 1962, and again in 1969. The tennis great himself has also expressed great surprise over Nadal’s failure to win, saying, “I’ll be darned. I thought he’d come all the way through, but he didn’t. They were all counting that he was going to be the defending champion in all four tournaments..it looked like he was playing well.”
72 year old Rod “Rocket” Laver, has reiterated that it is more difficult to win four titles in one year, than to complete a Grand Slam in two seasons. He says, “it is certainly tougher to win in the calendar year. There’s a time frame. You don’t have any chance unless you start off winning the Australian Open.”
Nadal’s failure to win demonstrates the immense difficulty of the feat accomplished by Rod Laver so many years ago. Laver himself seemed to have his bets pegged on the Spaniard, saying, “that’s disappointing for him, really. In a way, that was an effort to put all those tournaments together through last year. It really was a good performance. I had him as being favoured, even to beat Federer, the way he was playing.”
In 2009, Laver celebrated the 40th anniversary of his second Grand Slam by dining with the four men whom he defeated in 1969; Spanish pro Andres Gimeno, and Australians Ken Rosewall, Tony Roche and John Newcombe. The commemorative dinner was held at the Australian Open, where Rocket Rod later presented Nadal with the Aussie Cup after his victory over Roger Federer.
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