Rod Laver’s tennis career ended 30 years ago. A stroke nearly ended his life 10 years ago. And now arthritis in his once powerful left wrist has forced him to skip his Tuesday doubles game and Friday tee time at La Costa Resort & Spa.

“Wear and tear,” Laver said, pointing to the wrist that flicked thousands of winners over a brilliant 23-year amateur and professional career. “It’s bone on bone in here.”

The most famous member at La Costa usually takes the court late in the evening, after the teens and housewives have finished their lessons and the men’s club matches are complete. But occasionally, a few members will wander by the clay courts and notice a slightly built lefthander with a forehand too technically sound for a weekend club player and a topspin backhand that looks strangely familiar.

Before long, a crowd gathers to watch the 69-year-old from Rockhampton, Australia, who is the only tennis player to twice win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same year. Laver is hardly seeking attention at this stage in his life, but he doesn’t run from it either.

“Tennis is the winner,” he said. “Young kids wanting to play more tennis. That’s more what I enjoy more than anybody coming along to watch me play. People watching me is almost a negative these days. Sometimes I’m hitting the ball so badly, they’re probably thinking, ‘You mean he won Wimbledon? That same guy?’”

Laver and his wife, Mary, relocated to Carlsbad eight years ago from Palm Springs to beat the heat and join his stepchildren, his son and his seven-year-old granddaughter in Carlsbad.

During most of his playing career, Laver lived in Newport Beach. He also tried the wine country of Santa Ynez for a few years.

How does Carlsbad stack up?

“I think it’s fabulous,” he said. “The weather is so nice all the time, it’s boring.”

When Laver dominated tennis throughout much of the 1960s, the golden era of tennis was still a decade away. It wasn’t until the late 1970s, when some 36 million Americans had wood rackets in their hands, that television ratings began soaring and little boys and girls dreamed of being the next John McEnroe or Chris Evert.

By then, Laver’s career was winding down. He retired from tennis in 1979 after nearly 200 career singles titles, one coming at La Costa in 1975.

A few minutes before Laver arrived at the club, a former small college tennis player looking for a hitting partner was asked if he had heard of Rod Laver: “Was he a tennis player? I’m sorry. I don’t know him.”

Liz Laplante, the women’s tennis coach at UC San Diego who often plays doubles with Laver, said she wasn’t surprised that one of the legends of tennis is no longer a household name.

“He’s so normal and humble,” she said. “I think he pretty much goes through life in San Diego without people recognizing him. Unless you are 50 and over or a real tennis fan, you don’t know him and that’s too bad.”

Count La Costa tennis pro Brian Blumenfield as an avid tennis fan who nearly embarrassed himself the first time he met Laver at the La Costa courts.

“He was buying a can of tennis balls and when he signed for them, I almost asked him if I could take the receipt home,” he laughed. “I wanted to frame it. I was awestruck.

“It’s amazing how many adults and kids don’t know who he is. What he’s accomplished in tennis, winning the Grand Slam twice, will never be done again.”

After getting over his initial nervousness, Blumenfield has become a friend of Laver’s. He takes none of it for granted.

“I’ve had the opportunity to hit with him, play golf and hang out with him,” Blumenfield said. “I still find it amazing.”

And does Laver’s golf game compare with his tennis game? Laver said he plays to a 10 handicap. But before his stroke, he was nearly a scratch golfer. “He hits it straight and he plays pretty fast,” Blumenfield said.

It makes sense that a tennis player nicknamed “Rocket” would play golf quickly, too. Laver was often a blur on the court, charging into the net behind a driving forehand or a spinning backhand. But not everyone considered Laver a speed demon. In fact, Laver said “Rocket” was not exactly the most endearing moniker.

Harry Hopman, Australia’s legendary Davis Cup coach, thought Laver was a little nonchalant on the court as a younger player. Laver didn’t disagree with his old coach.

“I was sort of lackadaisical,” Laver said. “I could always get there, but it was usually at the last minute. Ken Rosewall [a fierce Laver rival and another great Australian player] was called muscles because he didn’t have any. We do that sort of thing in Australia. We’re a bit sarcastic.”

As a teenager growing up down under in Rockhampton, Laver was an aggressive player, sometimes overly so.

“I felt like I could hit a winning shot from anywhere,” he said. “I’d go for a shot down the line and I’d hit it over the fence. Everybody would be laughing.”

But once Laver’s left arm strengthened and his timing and footwork improved, the laughs turned to groans on the other side of the net. Suddenly, Laver’s aggressive nature set him apart from his competition.

“I felt more at ease hitting out than simply being satisfied with getting the ball back in the court,” he said. “I was never one for playing a lot of rallies. If I had four hits at it and I hadn’t won the point or lost it, I was going to get it over with.”

Long considered one of the gentlemen of the sport off the court, Laver admits he wasn’t all that hospitable between the lines. “I was probably mean and I hated to lose,” he said. “But on the court I never did anything. I was never aggressive toward anybody, but I would guess my tennis was aggressive.”

Laver patterned his game after his idol Lew Hoad, a strapping Australian who enjoyed taking risks on the court. Laver learned the game on a graveled clay surface his father built for him and his brothers in the back yard of his Rockhampton home. Although he was born left-handed with plenty of natural spin and talent, Laver was also a tireless worker.

“If you didn’t play well you were going to get beat up, so you practiced a lot,” he said. “The competition is the thing that makes you a better player.”

Laver’s toughest and most common rival was Rosewall. If you believe Wikipedia’s records—Laver said he doesn’t dispute them—Rosewall and Laver played over 130 matches. Some historians say they played 185 with Laver winning 100.

He hasn’t mastered a computer yet, but Laver said he is amazed how much is out there in cyberspace about his career. He was handed the printed version of the Rod Laver Wikipedia entry, and it was 20 pages long.

“I’m thinking, ‘Where do they get all this stuff?’ he said. “But it is kind of cool looking at your life like that. I’m thrilled that it all happened. I wish I knew more about the computer so I could find more.”

Although he doesn’t see many matches in person anymore, Laver keeps up with today’s game on the Tennis Channel. The player he follows most closely is Switzerland’s Roger Federer, the world’s number one player. Ask Laver about Federer’s most recent matches and he’ll give you a full rundown.

Some tennis experts have compared Federer’s style of play with Laver’s. Laver said he isn’t so sure he was ever that good.

“I’m honored that people say that,” he said. “It’s unbelievable what he can do with the ball.”

After he stopped playing competitively, Laver has had several opportunities to stay close to the game. A number of touring professionals asked Laver to be a traveling coach, but he politely declined.

“I did enough traveling when I played,” he said. “And maybe I wouldn’t be very good at it. You’ve got to analyze what that player can do. I just knew what I could do. I also may not be able to give advice in the kindest words.”

Although he is still a big tennis fan, Laver said the large-headed, lightweight graphite rackets have led to long rallies with players blasting away from the baseline and very little variety in their shots. If he were playing today, Laver said he would play an unconventional game.

“I’d stay back, I’d come, I’d hit drop shots and lobs, running to the net and doing unusual things when you probably shouldn’t be,” he said. “They’d probably say, ‘What the heck is he doing?’“

As he approaches his 70th birthday, Laver is also coming up on another milestone—the 10th anniversary of his brush with death. It was in July of 1998 that Laver was attending a men’s tour event on UCLA’s campus in Westwood and taping a series of interviews for ESPN. As he was being interviewed, he began to feel lightheaded.

“I thought maybe the lights were bothering me,” he said. “But then I couldn’t feel my arm and my leg.”

The ESPN reporter realized Laver’s symptoms were sounding eerily familiar to that of his father who recently had suffered a stroke. Within five minutes, Laver was in an ambulance and on his way to nearby UCLA Medical Center.

“Had I been in some remote place, I’d be dead,” he said. “I’m pretty certain of it.”

Within two months, Laver was back on the tennis court—hobbling around on his left leg and swatting balls with his left arm.

“Fortunately your right side goes when you have a stroke,” he said. “Being a lefty, I was able to learn to play again. At first for only 15 minutes, then a half hour, then 45 minutes. Then the right leg moved, then the right arm. I was in heaven. ”A decade later, Laver has come all the way back. “Everything is mine and it all functions,” he said. “I’d say I’ve come out of it pretty well.”

But Laver understands that the road to recovery can be more difficult for others, so he has spent some time speaking to groups of stroke victims, offering comfort and advice.

“Most stroke victims think they are second-class citizens,” he said. “A lot of them hide in a corner and don’t take risks because they might fall or say something silly. I understand. A lot of times things would come out of my mouth and I’d say, ‘Who said that?’ My message to them was: ‘Don’t give up on yourself.’”

In July, Laver will travel to Wimbledon in London, England to mark a happier milestone—the 40-year anniversary of Open tennis. Before 1968, major tournaments such as Wimbledon and the U.S. Open were off limits to professionals. Laver won his first Grand Slam in 1962 as an amateur and his second in 1969 as a professional.

He also captured the 1968 Wimbledon championship, a victory Laver considers maybe his sweetest.

“Being able to be let back from the pro ranks to play in those grounds was pretty special,” he said. “For me, Wimbledon was always the number one tournament in the world. The atmosphere, the crowd, the facilities, the history of the game…my concentration was always better there. Just walking through the main gates will be a thrill for me.” •