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recalled: "We had so many great players at the same time. Not just one or two but eight or nine and he took us around the world as a team every year. "Hop worked us all hard. That is the amazing thing in Australia's tennis heritage. We had so many great players at the same time. Physical training would be hard and we were all out to beat each other in tournaments but when we came together in the Davis Cup team, there was such a great inseparability. "As a group we would start off in March or April, heading to Europe to play on the clay and would finish up in September after the swing around the United States. Then we would go home to play the Australian circuit. But the Davis Cup trips were a time to show how unified we were. "If you were picked to play, the other guys on the team bench would give you great support. There was no animosity but those were the days of amateur tennis, now I appreciate it's so different." The tennis calendar has continued to congest with each year that passes. The Laver Cup, now contested each autumn, has further crowded the weeks following the US Open. Recent years saw the Davis Cup no longer take precedence and Laver sympathised: "I can understand that the demands on the top guys' time are a lot more these days and they can't play everything. "Nevertheless, the Davis Cup, and that great big trophy should still mean something and, I'd like to think, stand the test of time. "Here we are in 2019 and a big backer such as Kosmos can provide the money to support the smaller nations that don't possess a Grand Slam tournament or even a high-profile Tour event. You can understand the thinking that supported a need for a change." Laver knows so well that things are always moving on in tennis and the money now at stake puts a different complexion on things. After much reflection he accepts that the Davis Cup must change like everything else. With the action in Madrid set to start in November, the focus on the remodeled Davis Cup is growing by the week. Although it would currently be premature to describe one-time dissenter Laver as a convert to the new format, he is open to the need for change and hopes his original views are proved very wrong. ■ " Here we are in 2019 and a big backer such as Kosmos can provide the money to support the smaller nations." ITFWorld // AUTUMN 2019 15 An historic agreement about the future of Davis Cup was signed in 2018 Laver won all four Grand Slams in 1969 – the second time he achieved such a feat R O D L A V E R

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