Tennis legend Rod Laver believes reigning Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Andy Murray is capable of pulling off even greater feats than Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, if he continues to play well in the coming years.
Laver becomes the latest tennis Hall of Famer to express his support for Murray after the Briton's epic victory at All England Club.
Only tennis player in history to win all available Grand Slam in the same year twice, Laver is confident Murray can also achieve a rare calendar slam, which hasn't been done in professional tennis for a long time.
In the history of the sport, there are only three players that achieved such milestone. Laver did it twice in his career in 1961 and 1969 while Margaret Court and Steffi Graf both achieved it in 1970 and 1988, respectively.
"I think we need to wait to see if Andy wins a few more majors first, but if he does that then it's possible he could win a calendar grand slam," Laver told the Scotsman, according to ESPN UK. "The most difficult of the four majors for him to win is probably the French Open, but he's got the game to win on clay as he proved by reaching the semi-final in 2011.
Meanwhile, former world's no.1 Roger Federer will compete for the first time in five years in Hamburg with the hope of boosting his confidence heading into the hard court season.
Federer, who absorbed a second round exit at the Wimbledon Open two weeks ago, decided to play on the red clay of Hamburg because of his desire to win more matches, and at the same time, get himself ready for upcoming big competitions, especially in Montreal and Cincinnati.
"I think this decision was made very quickly the day after Wimbledon. I thought, what are my options now? Do I need more practice? Do I need more matches? What does my heart say? I really wanted to play some more matches," Federer said, according to Tennis Earth.
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