📍Rockhampton QLD 4700, Australia
1938 – 1956“Rod Laver was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, in August 1938, the third of four children of Roy Laver, a cattleman and butcher, and Melba. As a baby he was taken back to Langdale, the cattle station near Rockhampton that his father managed, and for a time the family lived on another station near Marlborough before returning to Rockhampton for the children's schooling. The family was mad about tennis, and Roy built a court so his sons could play. He was a slight, sickly little boy, small for his age, and his older brothers were the family's tennis hopes, but working on the cattle runs and playing endless tennis made him tough. At about ten, a local coach, Charlie Hollis, took him on and taught him the backhand and the topspin serve; Laver later said he did not know how his career would have turned out without him. When he wasn't on the court, he loved spearfishing in the Pacific. At thirteen Hollis entered him in the state under-fourteen championships in Brisbane, and he won his first trophy. He met the Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman, who nicknamed him Rocket, partly as a joke about his slowness. He left school to concentrate on tennis and moved to Brisbane and then Sydney. He won the Grand Slam, all four major titles in one year, in 1962 as an amateur and again in 1969 as a professional, the only player ever to do it twice. Melbourne's centre court, Rod Laver Arena, bears his name.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today