The Gonzales–Laver rivalry was a
tennis rivalry between
Pancho Gonzales and
Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former professional tennis player. Laver was ranked as the World number 1 ranked male tennis players, world number 1 professional player indisputably for five years from 1965 to 1969, ...
, widely regarded as two of the greatest
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
players of all time. They played against each other from 1964 to 1970, and Laver led their head-to-head rivalry 43-22.
Analysis
Jack Kramer writes that Laver was "absolutely unbeatable for a year or two late in the 1960s", but a "careful comparison" could be made between Laver and the somewhat older Gonzales and that Kramer is "positive that Gonzales could have beaten Laver regularly."
Kramer sees as evidence of Gonzales's superiority over Laver the fact that Gonzales defeated Laver in a U.S.$10,000 winner-take-all, five-set match before 15,000 spectators in New York City's
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
in January 1970 when Gonzales was age 41 and Laver was still considered the world No. 1 player. However, Gonzales was still a top 10 player when this match occurred, and Laver won this event, beating Gonzales in the semifinals.
Head-to-head tallies
The following is a breakdown of their documented head-to-head results:
*All matches: Laver 43–22
*All finals: Laver 14–7
*
Grand Slams: Laver 1–0
*
Pro Slams: Laver 2–0
List of matches
See also
*
List of tennis rivalries
In tennis history there have been a number of notable rivalries. This list reflects some of the great rivalries.
For the pre-1991 eras, complete statistics on all matches is difficult to obtain in definitive form. In many years there were signif ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzales-Laver rivalry
Tennis rivalries