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Rod Laver ‘Might Have Hurt Somebody’ With a Modern Racket

Related Topics: Rod Laver

At 84 years old, the man with his name on the stadium sits courtside at the Australian Open. He likes what he sees.

Rod Laver won 11 Grand Slam singles titles and remains the last man to win the four biggest tournaments in the sport in a single calendar year.Credit...Hannah Mckay/Reuters

MELBOURNE, Australia — In the middle of the 1960s, before tennis entered the modern era, Rod Laver and the other top tennis players in the world had to barnstorm the globe hunting for paychecks, playing tennis matches everywhere from La Paz to Nairobi, like jazz musicians bouncing from gig to gig.