San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Even tennis great can be stopped by a pandemic
The living, breathing Australian jewel known as Rod Laver called Charlton Heston and John Wayne friends, paired with adidas for a trendy shoe line coveted by Kanye West and fundamentally reshaped the structure and stature of tennis.
Picking up a racket more than seven decades ago, when Polaroid’s first camera was sold and “South Pacific” debuted on Broadway, grew the sinews of a remarkable life.
So, Laver’s decision to skip the Australian Open early next month at the arena named after him in Melbourne can be chalked up as more than the latest chapter of COVID-19 sports deflation. The empty seat will slice a hole through the fabric of the event.
“In Australia, there are two guys above everyone else (in sports),” said Darren Bennett, the two-time All-pro punter for the Chargers who was born in Sydney. “Don Bradman, our greatest cricket player ever, is like our Babe Ruth. And there’s Rod Laver. They’re the two massive sporting icons. Rod has rock star status. He’s our Jack Nicklaus.
“There’s no greater living sporting icon in Australia than Rod Laver.”
The pandemic keeps stubbornly muscling our most treasured sports heroes and events into the shadows. Instead of seeing Laver in enough TV cutaways at the tournament to make you think he’s a longlost Kardashian, he’ll park in front of the television at his Carlsbad home.
Wimbledon and the 20th anniversary of Pete Sampras’ last title and Venus Williams’ first? Poof. Major League Baseball’s All-star Game, where hands would have been clapped raw for Tommy Lasorda? Mothballed.
At 82, Laver understands the prudence of avoiding travel as vaccines trickle out and uncertainty refuses to fully release its nearly yearlong grip. He’s accustomed to glad-handing fans, given his royal role at the event. There will be fewer of those adoring throngs, along with fewer sponsor obligations.
Best to pocket a raincheck, no matter the tug of heartstrings.
“I’d like to be there,” said Laver, of the delayed event scheduled to begin Feb. 8. “I’ve done it, boy, so many years now. I’ll have to miss a year.”
Asked when he last missed the Open, Laver paused. Has it been a decade? A dozen years? More? It’s been a part of his annual routine, for the most part, dating back to the 1960s. Swiss clock sort of stuff.
The needling virus thumbs its nose at our collective history and rhythms.
“It’s sad, in many ways, with this COVID hanging over the world,” Laver said. “Sometimes you have to accept that these things happen in life.”
To fully understand Laver’s station Down Under, as well as the gem in our own backyard, Bennett explains.
Laver, Bennett, former Chargers kicker Rolf Benirschke and longtime Laver friend and local sportswriter Jay Paris played in a charity golf tournament hosted by another ex-charger and TV personality Jim Laslavic. On No. 18, Benirschke holed a rare albatross to win the tournament.
That was not the most memorable part of the day. Laver casually had taken a call during the round, without any noticeable fanfare. It was former Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull.
“You watch people get tongue-twisted around Rod Laver, because he’s a legend,” Bennett said.
Bennett moved to Tulsa, Okla., about three years ago to watch his son punt for the University of Tulsa. He recalled doing Chargers pregame shows with Laslavic when a visitor would pop in.
“Rod would come over with a beer in his hand and say hi,” Bennett said. “What he did in tennis is unprecedented. He’s an absolute legend and he comes off as a regular person you’d have a beer or coffee with.”
Bennett’s wife, Rosemary, came home from Home Depot in Encinitas one day slack-jawed at who she had stumbled into. There in the garden center, the only player to complete two calendar-year Grand Slams in history walked around like a no-nonsense shopper hunting a bargain.
“I said, ‘Did you talk to him?’ ” Bennett said. “She
said, ‘Oh, no. I didn’t want to bother him.’ And she had met him a few times before. But she was too scared.”
That’s the reverence Laver commands, and has, since upending the sport in the 1960s.
Today, his days prove less historic. “I’ve been doing a lot of organizing at home, cleaning things out and putting photos in frames,” Laver said. “I have a garden in back of the house. I eat a lot of home cooking with broccoli, beans, carrots, cauliflower. Whatever’s coming up. I guess that’s healthy, right?”
Laver lights up when you mention pickleball, an activity growing in popularity by leaps and senior-citizen bounds. Someone asked him to tag along and watch. He was intrigued.
“I see that older people have graduated to it, so tennis might suffer a bit on that,” he said. “They probably aren’t coming back to tennis if they’re playing pickleball. But as long as they’re having exercise, that’s the main thing.” Does he plan to dive in? “I’ve got too many replacement parts,” Laver said.
There’s no replacement for Laver, though.