In 1956, a slight, red-haired 17-year-old from Rockhampton, Queensland, made his debut at Wimbledon. Few would have noticed the lack of progress of Rod Laver.

He was beaten in straight sets in the first round by the Italian Orlando Sirola, who was unusual in that he stood 6ft 7in and did not start playing tennis until he was 22. Sirola was Runner-Up in the doubles that year, while Laver claimed just two games in losing the Boys’ Singles Final to the American Ron Holmberg.

But Laver had merely lit a fuse. By the time he made his final appearance at Wimbledon in 1971 he had been Champion four times and Runner-Up twice. On the broader world stage he had eclipsed all argument about his abilities by winning the Grand Slam twice, in 1962 and again in 1969.

In what are usually the best years of a player's career – 24 to 29 – he was absent from the traditional championships because he had turned professional. His record is rock solid as it stands. How much greater would it have been if he had played all the way through?

In Laver's youth, Australians were either winning the Wimbledon title or proving an extreme nuisance to those who did. Laver was to become a focal part of the dynasty, following the Australian tennis tradition as the youngest of three brothers who always had a court at home to play on and absorbing the lessons of history on fitness, technique and tactics from great coaches. He rose above everyone to become the best player in the world, a master craftsman on all surfaces.

Laver's Grand Slams involved winning Wimbledon and the Australian and US Championships on grass, and the French on clay. The format has changed now in that Wimbledon is the only championship on grass, while Australia and the US Open have switched to hardcourts. But there is little reason to doubt that the left-handed Laver would have triumphed, whatever the sequence of surfaces he faced.

Laver had been a beaten finalist at Wimbledon in 1959 to Alex Olmedo, and in 1960 against a fellow Australian Neale Fraser in what was the first final between two left-handers. Of the six finals which Laver eventually played at Wimbledon, it was the longest.

Laver won Wimbledon for the first time in 1961, having played two five-set matches in the early stages. But he won the final over the American Chuck McKinley in under an hour. The following summer Laver came into Wimbledon an even stronger favourite after winning the titles of Italy, France, and Germany. At Wimbledon he won each match in straight sets with the exception of the quarter-final, where he lost the first set to the Spaniard Manuel Santana. Later in 1962, Laver signed a professional contract for £50,000.

Increasingly, the forward thinkers in tennis wanted an end to a situation where the game created big-name "amateurs" only to see them leave the traditional framework for upfront rewards in the professional game. The British fought hard and long for change, none more so than the All England Club, and in August 1967, there was a significant development in the staging of a one week eight-man professional event on the Centre Court at Wimbledon.

Not only did Laver win the tournament against Ken Rosewall in the Final, but the wheels were turning rapidly towards an open game. In December 1967, the Lawn Tennis Association voted to delete all reference to amateur and professional players and by the following April, when the British Hard Court Chanmpionships were staged at Bournemouth, open tennis became a fact.

In the new era of the game Laver, now approaching his 30th birthday, did not have things all his own way. Rosewall stopped him in the French final, and at the US Open Laver lost in the fourth round to the South African Cliff Drysdale. Only at Wimbledon did Laver record a Grand Slam title win. Laver had to beat five Americans on the way, including Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe, who would become champions in 1972 and 1975. In the final he beat another Australian left-hander, Tony Roche, and won 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Laver took Wimbledon by the throat in 1969. He was in truly dominant form, having won the Australian and French titles, and he beat Drysdale, Ashe and John Newcombe in his last three matches.

The US Open now stood between Laver and the prize of being the only man in history to win the Grand Slam twice. Laver carried on winning as he headed towards the US Open, 23 matches in all, and it transpired that no one was going to give him the last big title of the year.

The American Dennis Ralston led him by two sets to one in the fourth round; Roy Emerson, a long-term Australian mate who Laver beat in three finals on his way to his 1962 Grand Slam, gave him the hardest test of the tournament in the quarter-finals; then Laver ran through Ashe and Roche for the Slam.

Rain delayed the final, a helicopter was brought in to suck some of the moisture out of the court at Forest Hills, and Laver – sometimes known as the Rockhampton Rocket – played the match in spiked shoes.

It was a drab day, no setting for such a historic achievement. But Laver's fellow players knew just how colossal his year and his career had been. One of his fellow professionals summed him up: "It is just second nature for him to go after every ball in practice, even the no-chance kind, and not let it bounce more than once. He has made himself want to hit every ball regardless of the circumstances. This attitude transfers to matches."

Written by Barry Newcombe

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ROD LAVER

Singles Champion: 1961, 1962, 1968, 1969
Singles Runner-up: 1959, 1960
Doubles Champion: 1971
Doubles Runner-up: 1959
Mixed Champion: 1959, 1960