Rod Laver (R) with Davis Cup teammate John Newcombe (l) at Wimbledon. Picture: Don Morley Source: AAP
HIS old mates reckon he was so fit he could make Roger Federer look asthmatic but as he walks between the tables of beer drinking beef eaters at the Breakfast Creek Hotel there's a stutter to his step.
His red hair started to thin ages ago and with the pale skin of an old ranga, he's dodging the sun. He is dressed like he has just been pruning the bougainvillea, in khaki green shirt, green shorts, brown socks. He only needs a wide brimmed hat to get a start on The Crocodile Hunter.
All that betrays him as perhaps the greatest tennis player who ever lived is his name stamped on the brown canvas tennis shoes at the end of his skinny pink legs. On each heel, just above the adidas symbol is the name of the brand. It says "Rod Laver".
The Rocket has lived in the United States for most of his life but he's still as Aussie as a steak and schooner at the Brekkie Creek. In fact that's what he's having for lunch out in the beer garden, foregoing the rocket salad for a small steak, coleslaw and chips, though most of the chips stay on the plate.
Laver will be the special guest at a lunch today at City Hall, to promote his new memoir and to announce the Queensland Sport Awards finalists.
On his last visit to Queensland in February, which ended with a visit to Heron Island and a birdie on the last at Indooroopilly, the Rocket held court at the Brekkie Creek.
He was catching up with some of his oldest friends from Brisbane including three tennis writers who covered his career for The Courier-Mail – Lawrie Kavanagh, Hugh Lunn and Adrian McGregor.
The stories of a bygone era in Australian sport were flowing faster than his kick serve.
Laver played in an area before huge endorsements and massive sponsorships but he still had a ball.
He earned a £15 sports store voucher for his first Australian title in 1960. His first Wimbledon title as a professional in 1968 earned prizemoney of £2000. Andy Murray earned 800 times that last year.
Laver beat Neale Fraser to win his first Australian Championship but the memories of driving cross country to play the Australian circuit as a passenger in Trevor Fancutt's VW are just as fond to him, all the luggage on the roof rack and sitting next to another brilliant youngster named Frankie Gorman in the back seat of the beige Beetle. They passed the time on the long trip shooting at kangaroos out the window with an old Martini-Henry rifle, a preparation for big tournaments which would be lost on Federer, Djokovic and Nadal.
Laver is 75 now and has taken his share of knocks with hip and knee replacements, a stroke and most painfully, the loss of Mary, his wife of 46 years.
But even though he was sitting opposite Wally Lewis at the Brekkie Creek, there was only one king in the room.
The Rocket trounced John Newcombe to win the last of his four Wimbledon titles but at the Creek he was happier talking about catching yabbies as a boy back home in Rockhampton and the fishing he did around Yeppoon with Daphne Fancutt, his friend of 65 years.
As a girl, Daphne went to live with Rod's parents, Roy and Melba, a pair of tennis fanatics who had fallen in love at Dingo, in outback Queensland.
Daphne wanted to improve her serve with Rod's coach Charlie Hollis, a mentor who lived in a caravan then but would dwell forever in the hearts of the tennis stars he coached, from the Rocket to Wally Masur.
Even 65 years later, Daphne and Rod were talking as much about fishing as the two Grand Slams he won — the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US titles all in the same years, 1962 and 1969.
Laver danced around the clay of Roland Garros to outmuscle Ken "Muscles'' Rosewall in straight sets for his second French title in 1969 but he was never faster than on the ant-bed court at the back of his mate Jim Shepherd's place in Moorooka.
Neighbours would stretch their necks over Jim's fence to see some of the best in the world — Rocket, Jim, Mal Anderson, Ken Fletcher and Ashley Cooper — hitting in the backyard.
At Forest Hills in 1962, the Rocket shot down another Queensland bushie Roy Emerson and then took out the US title again in 1969 by beating Tony Roche.
But at the Creek he was keener to reminisce about the night in October 1962 at the old Courier-Mail building on Queen Street when Lawrie Kavanagh convinced him to turn pro over a couple of long-necks.
Laver had already won the Australian, French, Wimbledon, US, Italian, German, Swiss, Dutch, Irish, Norwegian, British hardcourt and London grasscourt titles but was having second thoughts about Lew Hoad and Rosewall in the pros.
The Rockhampton cattleman's son wasn't sure he could pass muster.
30 Oct, 2013
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Source: http://www.news.com.au/sport/tennis/australian-icon-rod-laver-returns-home-to-spin-yarns-of-a-bygone-era/story-fndkzym4-1226750019197?from=public_rss
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