Tennis great Laver's hope for future

Rod Laver spends most of his time at home in California these days but the tennis great has been in Australia to watch the Australian Open at the Melbourne arena that bears his name.

It's appropriate that, even when living overseas, Laver's name looms large over tennis in Australia.

"Rocket" Rod is arguably Australia's greatest-ever player, a title earned by his status as the only player to win two calendar Grand Slams, his record of 200 singles titles - the most in tennis history - and his membership of five Davis Cup-winning teams.

Now the left-hander from Queensland can add another award to one of the nation's most overloaded trophy cabinets: Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for his service to tennis as a player, representative and mentor.

It follows accolades including induction into the Australian and international tennis halls of fame and an MBE from the Queen in 1970.

Laver, now 77, said he won't get on the court on this visit, unlike his 2014 charity match "warm-up" hit with Roger Federer but he was paying close attention to the action at the Open, including watching Leyton Hewitt's final singles match last Thursday.

He rates Hewitt as "a great champion" and is excited about the current crop of young talent, such as Nick Kyrgios, now emerging.

"It's nice to see the bunch that have come through now, they've got a great deal of talent," he says.

"When we came along there was a lot of talent involved in the game and only a few pop up to the top."

Behind the big names of his era - Neale Fraser, Ashley Cooper, Mal Anderson and Ken Rosewall - was a big pool of talent pushing them.

"What you need is that competition and I think that Australia now has that in many ways," he says.

Of the recent match-fixing allegations that have overshadowed world tennis, Laver says it's a shame to see it creep in as it has in so many other sports.

"I hope that this doesn't continue because tennis is a pure sport. There's just two people on the court and one comes off a winner," he says.