Rod Laver watches the world’s top junior players, and yeah, he remembers when.
But Laver, the longtime Carlsbad resident, is also keen on what lies ahead.
“I’ve always enjoyed seeing the new players coming up,” Laver said. “I was once one of them.”
The International Club Rod Laver Junior Challenge Worldwide Finals, featuring five nations, has settled this week at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club.Â
Laver does more than lend his name. He attends various matches and presents the championship trophy, like he does at the Australian Open in the Rod Laver Arena.
This is a long way from that, and no one knows that better than Laver, 85, the iconic player who’s among the game’s greats.
Before winning two Grand Slams, Laver was grinding through Australian junior tennis, much like these 16-and-younger boys and girls from Argentina, Great Britain, India, Italy, South Africa and the U.S.
More than 40 countries vie for the finals, with this year’s go-around right around where its namesake lives.
“It’s nice that it’s close by,” said Laver, who won 11 major singles titles.
Two of Laver’s mentors, when he was in these players’ shoes, are never far from his heart.
“Charlie Hollis and Harry Hopman, those were my two main coaches,” Laver said. “When I was starting off as a junior, those were the guys that gave me a chance.”
What Laver didn’t give a second thought to was his school’s request to repeat eighth grade. When jaundice kept him home for half the year, Laver, bounced instead of doing a do-over.
He was off to conquer tennis, choosing to get his education, and eventually make his living, through his strings.
Laver, a Rockhampton native, won every age-group competition in Queensland, Australia, except for the under-17 category. Laver was the state’s top junior player in 1955.
The tenacious Laver was on the tennis-loving nation’s radar as a future champion. But first he would learn two lessons, at the same age as many of these young players he was watching this week.
A 16-year-old Laver saw Les Flanders flub an overheard on match point against Ashley Cooper in an early round of the 1955 Queensland Championship.Â
Cooper went on to win the title, a recipient of Flanders’ cockiness and carelessness.
“Tennis matches hinge on single points and complacency can beat you as surely as any opponent,” Laver said.
Laver often shrugs these days when ground strokes are hit with such force, and risk, when a higher-percentage shot will deliver a more reliable dividend.
“Make the other people make mistakes and a lot of players don’t understand that,” Laver, a four-time Wimbledon winner, said. “If you can hit your backhand three times in a row in the back court in a certain area, your chances are much better than just whacking the ball backward and forward.
“You live and learn, but half of the battle is getting to know the stroke you are hitting and seeing how accurate you can be with it, and how many mistakes you can make your opponent make.”
The personable and approachable Laver was a hit when making the rounds at the event’s opening ceremonies.Â
His presence sparks interest through generations of tennis fans, many far too young to have seen him dominate the sport, which included a stretch from 1965-69 as the world’s No. 1 player.
In the final year of that run, and for the second time, Laver prevailed at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, French Open and U.S. Open in a calendar year.
No one had done it before or has since.
“My dad always told me he was a really, really good player and I have just looked up,” said South African teenager Guy Vorwerk, after winning his first match.
 “I aspire to be like him and I have always wanted to meet him. He is definitely one of my idols.”
The accolades are many for Laver, as he’s as accustomed to them as he is embarrassed by them. Laver remains humbled, and feels blessed, that his junior tennis career spawned such a rich, storybook life.
“It’s nice that these kids get to play,” Laver said, “And they get to experience California.”
They’re all California dreaming to be like Laver, and what’s not to like about that?
Contact Jay Paris at [email protected] and follow him @jparis_sports
