In the first half of 1963, Laver was beaten consistently by both Rosewall and Hoad.

The other prestige title, the French pro, was won by Rosewall.

In 1965, Laver was clearly the No. 1 professional player, winning 17 titles and 13 of 18 matches against Rosewall.

Laver was also the runner-up to Ken Rosewall in the first French Open.

" Kramer's main argument for downgrading Laver is that, " Ken Rosewall beat Laver in those two World Championship of Tennis finals and that was a title Laver really wanted.

In a poll by the Associated Press in 2000, Laver was voted " The Male Tennis Player of the Century ", ahead of Pete Sampras, Tilden, Borg, Budge, McEnroe and Hoad ( tied ), Rosewall and Roy Emerson ( tied ), and Kramer.

Rosewall was born in Sydney into a family that played tennis and owned tennis courts.

At the age of 15 and still a junior player, Rosewall reached the semifinals of the 1950 New South Wales Metropolitan Championships ( not to be confused with the New South Wales Championships ), where he was defeated by the world-class adult player Ken McGregor.

Rosewall was only 18 years old when he won the singles titles at the Australian Championships, the French Championships, and the Pacific Southwest Championships in 1953.

Rosewall then reached the semifinals at the U. S. Championships, where he was defeated by Tony Trabert 7 – 5, 6 – 3, 6 – 3.

In 1956, Rosewall and Hoad captured all the Grand Slam men's doubles titles except at the French Championships, from which Rosewall was absent.

Rosewall explained later that there was a huge gap between the amateur level and the professional level.

This was a significant victory for Rosewall because, of the top professional players, only Sedgman and Tony Trabert did not play.

In 1958, Rosewall had the opportunity to show that he was still one of the best players on clay.

Rosewall was the runner-up at the Forest Hills Pro and tied for second ( with Pancho Gonzales and Sedgman ) in the Masters Round Robin Pro in Los Angeles.

The following year Rosewall was incorporated in a new World Pro tour, from January to May, featuring Gonzales, Segura and new recruit Alejandro " Alex " Olmedo.

Rosewall was therefore far behind Gonzales on this tour, the American having won almost all their direct confrontations ( 16 wins for gonzales to 5 wins for rosewall ).

Hoad was finalist in Paris and also won four tournaments making him second to Rosewall.

Rosewall also won two small tournaments in New Zealand and one more, the Australian TV Series ( in the last one he was the player who won the most matches ).

A US tour followed with Rosewall and Laver, Gimeno, Ayala and two Americans: Butch Buchholz and Barry MacKay ( Hoad was not chosen because there would have been too many Australians ).

In those occasions Rosewall only beat Laver 4 – 3 and won 5 tournaments ( the same as Laver ), but in particular he won the 3 greatest tournaments of the year 1963: chronologically the U. S. Pro at Forest Hills ( without Gimeno and Sedgman ) on grass where he defeated Laver 6 – 4 6 – 2 6 – 2, the French Pro at Coubertin on wood where his victim in the final was again Laver who later praised his conqueror: " I played the finest tennis I believe I've ever produced, and he beat me ", The Wembley Pro on wood ( Hoad finalist ).

The fact that Rosewall also won the major events clearly indicates that he was the number one in 1963 but also that the best pros were almost certainly the best players in the world during the previous years.

Nevertheless that ranking a ) brushed aside at least 10 tournaments because McCauley has traced at least 29 pro tournaments played by the touring pros ( plus some minor tournaments ) and several short tours and b ) granted each tournament the same points and then was unfair to the big events where Laver was globally superior to Rosewall.

Robert Roy of L ' Équipe, Kléber Haedens and Philippe Chatrier of Tennis de France, Michel Sutter ( who has published " Vainqueurs 1946 – 1991 Winners "), Christian Boussus ( 1931 Roland Garros amateur finalist ), Peter Rowley, Robert Geist, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Rod Laver and also the New York Times and World Tennis magazine considered Rosewall as the new no.

In the semifinals, the older Rosewall was no match for the fitter Newcombe and lost 6 – 1, 6 – 1, 6 – 3.

Năstase became one of the best players in 1970, with many experts ranking him as the sixth best player in the world at that time after the Australians Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, and Roche and the American Ashe.

In his end-of-year rankings, the British tennis expert Lance Tingay ranked Rosewall and Lew Hoad, his equally youthful doubles partner, jointly as the tenth best amateur players in the world.

At the time Hoad considered Gonzales the best ( in L ' Équipe in March 1961 ) and Rosewall didn't consider himself as the pro king but others thought that Rosewall's successes in the biggest tournaments made him the number one in the world ( Robert Roy's ranking in L ' Équipe ).

In the summer Rosewall returned to the circuit and won the two biggest events ( because all the best players participated and the events had a ( small ) tradition ): the French Pro at Roland Garros ( clay ) and Wembley Pro ( wood ).

After having won on clay and on wood Rosewall ended the season by winning on grass at the New South Wales Championships, Sydney, cementing his status as the best all-court player that year.

" Rocket " has captured two very great tournaments, a ) the U. S. Pro ( outside Boston ) over Rosewall ( suffering from food poisoning ) and Gonzales and b ) Wembley pro over Rosewall in one of their best match ever ( Gonzales has won the probably fourth greatest tournament of that year, the U. S. Pro Indoors, at White Plains, defeating in succession Anderson, Laver, Hoad and Rosewall ).

Forbidden to contest the greatest traditional events, Davis Cup and Grand Slams, during nearly eleven and a half years from 1957 to 30 March 1968, Rosewall reached his best level during this period, in particular from 1960 to 1966, by winning at least 62 tournaments ( including 16 less-than-eight-man events ) and 7 small tours.

At Roland Garros, the First Grand Slam Tournament of the Open Era, Rosewall confirmed his status of probably the best claycourt player in the world ( in fact since 1958 except in 1959 and 1966 ) by defeating Laver in the final 6 – 3, 6 – 3, 6 – 1.

Two months later at the U. S. Open, one of the two 1970 Grand Slams with all the best players, Rosewall took revenge in their semifinal match in three straight sets before overcoming Tony Roche in the final: 2 – 6, 6 – 4, 7 – 6, 6 – 3.

Some, among them Newcombe and the panel of journalists which made the 1971 WCT draw, considered Laver the best player because he won most tournaments ( 15 ), made most prize money and had a dominatingly positive head-to-head record against both Rosewall ( 5 – 0 ) and Newcombe ( 3 – 0 ).

* In the other tournaments with the best fields ( US Pro indoor at Philadelphia, US Pro outside Boston, Dunlop Open at Sydney, Pacific Southwest in Los Angeles and Wembley ) both players were even: Rosewall was runner-up at Dunlop and semi-finalist at Wembley and Newcombe was runner-up at Los Angeles and semi-finalist at Philadelphia.

He won the title, taking his revenge over Newcombe, who had beaten Rosewall at Wimbledon, in the quarters, defeating Okker in the semis and beating Laver 6 – 4 1 – 6 7 – 6 7 – 6 in the final in what was considered at the time as the best match, with their 1970 Sydney final, between the two rivals since their 1968 French Open final.

In what is considered one of the two best matches played in 1972, the other being the Wimbledon final, and the best Rosewall-Laver match of the open era Rosewall won his last major title of his long career: 4 – 6 6 – 0 6 – 3 6 – 7 7 – 6.

He writes: " BACKHAND — Budge was best, with Kovacs, Rosewall and Connors in the next rank ( although, as I've said, Connors ' ' backhand ' is really a two-handed forehand ).

* 1934 – Ken Rosewall, Australian tennis player

Ken Rosewall, another player noted for his one-handed backhand, used a very accurate slice backhand through the 1950s and 1960s.

By the end of the year, however, with six tournament titles, Laver had become the No. 2 professional player behind Rosewall.

Kenneth Robert (" Ken ") Rosewall AM MBE ( born 2 November 1934 ) is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia.

Rosewall is the only player to have simultaneously held Pro Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces ( 1962-1963 ).

In those tournaments Rosewall won 3 times while Laver reached 2 finals and 1 quarterfinal ( Wembley ), " Rocket " ( Laver's nickname ) becoming thus the second player in the world.

In the official pro points rankings ( 7 points for the winner, 4 points for the finalist, 3 points for the third player, 2 for the fourth one and 1 point to each quarter-finalists ) taking into account 19 pro tournaments, Rosewall ended # 1 in 1964 with 78 points beating # 2 Laver ( 70 points ) and # 3 Gonzales ( 48 points ).

In head-to-head matches between Rosewall and Laver, both player won 7 each.

But considering that Wimbledon and the U. S. Open were the two big events of 1970 Newcombe ( Wimbledon winner ) and Rosewall ( U. S. Open winner ) were the choices for the number one player in the world.

* in their two Grand Slam tournaments clashes each player won one match but Newcombe won the most prestigious title, while Rosewall won more sets ( 5 – 3 ).

Judith Elian of the French sports paper L ' Équipe, approved these statistics by ranking Rosewall as the number one player ahead of Newcombe and the panel of experts for the ' Martini and Rosso ' Cup also had Rosewall first, narrowly over Laver.

Because it was sponsored by Dunlop in 1971, all the World Championship Tennis ( WCT ) players ( including the ancient National Tennis League players since spring 1970 ) entered ( John Newcombe, Rosewall, Rod Laver, Tony Roche, Tom Okker, Arthur Ashe ( a WCT player since the beginning of the year ) and so on ) and some independent pros also played.

As a WCT player Rosewall played few Grand Prix tournaments but he had earned enough points to play the Grand Prix Masters held about ten days after his WCT Finals.

Between May 1972 ( victory at Dallas ) and April 1973 ( victory at Houston, River Oaks ) Rosewall captured only two minor titles, Tokyo WCT ( not giving points for the WCT Finals ) and Brisbane ( in December 1972 ) where the only Top 20 player was himself.

Rosewall made his last attempt at Wimbledon, at over 40, and as in his first Wimbledon Open ( in 1968 ) he lost in the same round ( 4th ) and against the same player ( Tony Roche ).