SAN DIEGO (AP) — If Novak Djokovic wins the U.S. Open two weeks from now to complete the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men’s tennis since 1969…
SAN DIEGO (AP) — If Novak Djokovic wins the U.S. Open two weeks from now to complete the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men’s tennis since 1969, “Rocket” Rod Laver will be there to welcome him into a remarkably exclusive group. “I’d be very happy to shake his hand if he can win the four Slams. I’d be happy for him to be a part of — whether it’s a ‘club’ or not, I don’t know,” Laver said with a chuckle during a recent interview with The Associated Press. No man has won the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open in the same season since the slightly built, red-haired, left-handed Australian did it for the second time — yes, second — 52 years ago. That was so long ago that the Beatles were just about to release “Abbey Road,” and America was still reveling in Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk. The decades have rolled along, and Laver — who also completed a true Grand Slam as an amateur in 1962 — and Don Budge, who did it in 1938, remain the only men to accomplish the greatest feat in tennis. That surprises Laver, even if, as he says, “It’s tough to put them all together.” It requires skill on a variety of surfaces nowadays: The U.S. Open and Australian Open are played on two types of hard courts, the French Open on red clay, Wimbledon on grass. It also requires avoiding injury. And figuring out each opponent for 28 matches spread out over about eight months. And handling each day’s particular weather. And so on. “I never said I was going for a Grand Slam; that’s pressure right there. And Djokovic, I think he wants to talk about it, and so that could be a detriment, if there is one,” Laver said. “He knows all the players, so there shouldn’t be any problem with (that).
