Laver
and King launched Wimbledon into new era
Send a link to a friend
[June 26, 2018]
By Simon Cambers
LONDON (Reuters) - In the debate about
the greatest players of all time, the names of Rod Laver and Billie
Jean King crop up again and again.
With 59 Grand Slam titles between them, King pipping Laver with 12
to 11 in singles titles alone, the pair left an indelible imprint on
the sport in the 1960s and 1970s.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the first Wimbledon of the
professional era and fittingly the pair, who each won the singles
title in 1968, will be back at the All England Club as the
"Chairman's Guests".
For Laver, his victory in 1968 was a sweet one, the Australian
having been banned for the previous five years because he had turned
professional in 1962.
It was only when Wimbledon led the way in making the sport's
governing bodies allow the professionals to join the amateurs, who
were being paid under the table, that the likes of Laver were
allowed back in.
In 1962 Laver completed the calendar-year Grand Slam - winning
Wimbledon, U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open - and after he
was welcomed back in 1968, he promptly won the Wimbledon title
again, beating fellow Australian Tony Roche in the final.
Seven years after his first Wimbledon win, Laver said turning
professional, when he repeatedly played against the likes of Ken
Rosewall, Pancho Gonzales and Lew Hoad, had hardened him up.

'A DIFFERENT PLAYER'
"I was pretty fortunate this happened for the five years, then when
Open tennis came along, and I got a chance to play in the Open
ranks, I was a different player," Laver told Reuters earlier this
year.
"All the amateur guys said: 'Who is this guy now? He doesn't miss
too many, he doesn't make mistakes, his second service is as good as
his first.'
"That was the nice thing that happened to me. It (the Open era) was
great for tennis."
King's 1968 victory was her third straight Wimbledon win and she
went on to add three more singles titles at SW19 in the early 1970s.
By the time she was done, she had won 39 Grand Slam titles in all,
including doubles and mixed doubles.
King said she feels Laver would have won many more Grand Slam crowns
had he not been banned alongside the other professionals.
"Here's a guy who missed out on 20 opportunities to win another
major, so when somebody looks at his total majors at 11, it's a
joke," King told Reuters.
[to top of second column] |

Former tennis player Billie Jean King arrives for the film "Battle
of the Sexes" at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), in
Toronto, Canada, September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

"So when I see Federer win 20, in the back of my mind I wonder how
many Rocket (Laver) could have won. There should be a caveat if
we're going to do our history right. People sacrificed to try to
make the game better."
AT THE FOREFRONT OF CHANGE
King was at the forefront of the change and was delighted to play at
Wimbledon in 1968, having been unable to compete in the first
tournament of the Open era in Bournemouth, in April of that year,
because she had just signed up with a professional group.
"I was absolutely thrilled - and because we missed Bournemouth, too,
I thought, finally, we get to play as professionals," said King, who
beat Australian Judy Tegart in the final.
King believes tennis historians should stop thinking about tennis as
if it had begun in 1968.
"I think we should get rid of the Open era, either you won or you
didn't win," she said.
"Margaret Court and I are in the middle, I call us the transition
generation from amateur to professional. Sometimes (people) will say
'Billie was a three-time U.S. Open champion' – no I am not, I'm
four-time, one of them was nationals but that was still the U.S.
Open.
"It's not our fault it wasn't pro, why do you keep penalizing us,
we're the ones who really helped it become pro."
Wimbledon will celebrate their achievements and their role in
bringing in the professional era with a series of events and
features around the grounds.

For the record, Laver received 2,000 pounds for his victory in 1968
while King was given a cheque for 750 pounds. She would become a key
campaigner for equal prize money in the years which followed. In
2007, Wimbledon became the last of the four Grand Slams to award
equal pay to the winner.
(Writing by Simon Cambers; Editing by Tony Lawrence and Pritha
Sarkar)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |