“I’d have to say it’s probably close to it,” Laver said from New York, the last stop on his 50th anniversary Grand Slam tour. “The thing is, I had to play Roy Emerson in the third round , Fred Stolle in the quarterfinals , Rochie in the semis and then Gimeno in the final . They were all hard.”

At the French Open, Laver’s nemesis was another Australian, Richard Crealy . Crealy won the first two sets 6-3, 9-7, Laver the next two 6-2, 6-2, when it became dark. Both players agreed to finish the next day. Laver’s warm-up consisted of playing two rigorous sets against his friend Emerson.

“He didn’t do anything like that,” said Laver, who won the fifth set 6-4. “I think he was still trying to get the sleep out of his eyes.”

Laver went on to beat Rosewall in straight sets in the final. Laver considered the win an upset.

“He had beaten me the year before in four sets, so I just said, ‘Let’s hit out,’” Laver said. “It was mind over matter. Ken came off and said, ‘On a clay court, you just can’t do this.’ But I did.”

At Wimbledon, Laver went down two sets and was at 3-3 against the unheralded Premjit Lall of India in the second round before he reeled off 15 straight games to win. In the final, he knocked off John Newcombe of Australia, six years his junior, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

“I’m just happy I made a match of it,” Newcombe said by phone from his tennis ranch in Texas. “We were a set all, and I had a break in the third, but I couldn’t do it. The thing about Rod is that he showed us not only what we could achieve on the court, but how we should conduct ourselves off the court. He taught us that we weren’t just representing tennis, but Australia, too.”