Rod Laver: 'I never thought how I would face Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal'

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In a press conference in the French Open, the Australian legend Rod Laver was asked what strategy we would have used against clay-court players like Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal.

Laver said: "That's a difficult question. Yeah, it's amazing what -- we had, you probably all know, the wooden racquets, they were little tiny heads. Then when the big-headed racquet came out, I didn't really play any. There was one that came out for me, I think it was a company called ProKennex. It was a bigger wooden racquet, but then they put two areas of graphite over it. So it was stiff. You could hit it hard, and you got that, you know, that feeling of the size of it. But now, today's players, you know, they have learned how to perfect the new racquet that's out there now with heavy topspin or coming under it. Like Roger Federer, you know, he goes up to hit his shot and immediately comes underneath it and almost backs a drop shot back into the net. It's a totally different world. You know, I never thought about how would I play against someone like Roger or Rafa, because, I mean, their game is so different. I have to associate my life with a wooden racquet, trying to play their game. You know, the game has sped up so much because the timing and the impact of the new racquet technology are totally different to, yeah, the wooden racquet. But, yes, the wooden racquet was, you know, a great racquet, but you had to generate it and you had to hit the ball perfectly, you know, on the timing. Timing had to be perfect. If it wasn't, it wasn't going anywhere. I think Guy could tell us all about that because it's the way the game was back in those years. Yeah."

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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2IywcXp

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