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Updated on August 17th 2022, 8:26:08 am

Top 5 Best Rod Laver Performances

Rod Laver started playing tennis from 1963 as a professional and he retired after 16 years at the top in 1979. Let’s look at the Top 5 Best Performances of Rod Laver.

After talking about John McEnroe and his performances yesterday, today we will talk about legit one of the greatest of all time and one of the rare tennis players to win all 4 Grand Slam titles twice in his career. Rod Laver has an arena named after him at the Australian Open and that court is the center court of that Grand Slam. He has been the greatest Australian tennis player of all time and his records and performances are proof of that. Rod Laver has won 11 Grand Slam titles in his illustrious career and is also one of those rare players that has won a Grand Slam before the Open Era and in the Open Era as well.


Rod Laver started playing tennis from 1963 as a professional and he retired after 16 years at the top in 1979. He was the best player of his generation and his records show it. He has a career record of 1689 wins and 538 losses which gives him a win % of over 75. Rod Laver has won 11 Grand Slam titles and he has earned a total prize money of $1,565,413. Let’s look at the Top 5 Best Performances of Rod Laver and I will consider only those that were played in the Open Era as from 1968 everyone was allowed to play everywhere.


1968 Wimbledon Championship vs Tony Roche


The first performance that we will talk about is the 1968 Wimbledon Final where Rod Laver played his Aussie counterpart and he won the match in 3 sets and dominated the match and he won the Wimbledon title. He won the 3 sets 6-3, 6-4 and 6-2. This was one of the most dominant Performances in the career of Rod Laver.

Also Read | Top 5 Best Performances of Andy Murray


1969 Australian Open Final vs Andrea Gimeno


1969 was the year of Rod Laver and the rest of the 4 performances will be from this year only as he won all the 4 Grand Slam titles this year making it a calendar Slam. In this final Rod Laver again dominated his Spanish opponent and won the final in 3 sets and showed the world why he is the best in the world at that time. The match went quickly and he won by 6-3, 6-4 and 7-5 in 3 sets and thus winning another Australian Open title.


Also Read | Top 5 Best Performances of Pete Sampras


1969 French Open Final vs Ken Rosewall


This is the 3rd performance on my list and this time it is another different opponent that he met in the final of the French Open and this time it was Ken Rosewall. This match also went only 3 sets as Rod Laver made quick work of his opponent and won his second French Open title. He won the match by 6-4, 6-3 and 6-4 and no one yet was able to challenge him in a Grand Slam final.


Also Read | Top 5 Best Performances of Andre Agassi


1969 Wimbledon Final vs John Newcombe


This is the 4th performance on my list and this is the 4th different opponent that he beat to win a Grand Slam but this time he was given a tough match by his opponent John. This match was a 4 set thriller and Rod Laver won the first set 6-4 but list the 2nd set by 5-7 but then he showed that he has great comeback abilities as well as he came back and won the next 2 sets by 6-4 and 6-4 thus winning his final Wimbledon title in 1969 in an epic match.


Also Read | Top 5 Best Performances of Roger Federer


1969 US Open Final vs Tony Roche


For the last performance we have a repeat of the first match on our list but this time Tony Roche pushed Rod Laver more as he won the first set 7,-9 and put Rod Laver under pressure but Rod Laver being Rod Laver showed why he is the best and he just dominated the next 3 sets and absolutely smashed his opponent by 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 and won his final US Open Title as well thus ending a dream year where he won all 4 Grand Slam titles and no one could touch him.


Also Read: Top 5 John McEnroe Best Performances