When Rod Laver and John Newcombe met to determine the champion of the 1973 Australian Indoors in Sydney, the Davis Cup semi-final was just a few days away. It was a safe bet that the Aussies would beat the visiting Czechoslovakians, but it still wasn’t certain who, exactly, would get the job done.
One reporter called the four-man squad of Laver, Newcombe, Ken Rosewall, and Mal Anderson “the strongest team Australia, and quite likely any country, has fielded in the 73-year history of Dwight Davis’s silver bowl.” Australia had won the Cup 21 times, and after a five-year lull in which the nation’s murderer’s row of contract professionals was ineligible, the lads from Down Under were more than ready to take it back.
Newcombe would lead the charge: Captain Neale Fraser was relying on the big-serving US Open champion. That left Laver or Rosewall for the second singles spot. Laver was two years younger, and when he played his best tennis, he was the superior choice. But he had struggled with injuries throughout the year. Until he came through a weak field in Hong Kong at the end of October, he hadn’t won a title since March. In that same span, Rosewall had picked up five.
Luckily for Fraser, he couldn’t have scripted the Aussie Indoors any better. Both veterans waltzed through the draw, progressing to the semis without the loss of a set. On November 10th, something had to give: They met in the semi-finals with, in all likelihood, a place in the Davis Cup singles lineup on the line.
There were no secrets between these two. Laver and Rosewall had faced off more than 150 times, going back to Laver’s pro debut ten years earlier. Rocket held a narrow advantage, but Rosewall had won the last two decisions, including the championship round of the 1972 WCT Finals, one of the greatest matches of all time and a television broadcast that launched thousands of amateur tennis careers. It was Rosewall’s backhand against Laver’s serve-and-volley, as it had always been.
In the decisive third set, both men battled for every point, breaking serve a total of seven times. Laver won by the narrowest of margins, 8-6. Rosewall, aware of the implications of his loss and always a man of few words, could only say, “I should have pressed harder.”
The victory earned Laver a place in the final against Newk. If Fraser had any lingering doubts about his choice, the left-handed veteran put them to rest. The Aussie Indoors final was best-of-five, and the two men went the distance, Laver grabbing the first set and Newcombe the next two. Rocket was the most dangerous man in the game when playing from behind, and he showed it again on this day.
After pushing the match to a fifth set, Laver lost his serve in the fifth game of the decider. Newcombe held for a 4-2 advantage before Rocket made his final move. Laver broke for 4-all, and two games later, he put an exclamation mark on his triumph with a blistering backhand on match point. After a frustrating season full of stops and starts, there was no longer anything holding him back.
“I reckon I was the underdog,” he said, “and this makes the victory that much more enjoyable.”
Laver the underdog: Even the Czechs didn’t give themselves much of a chance.
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This post is part of my series about the 1973 season, Battles, Boycotts, and Breakouts. Keep up with the project by checking the TennisAbstract.com front page, which shows an up-to-date Table of Contents after I post each installment.
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