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Laver to leave hospital today

Tennis legend Rod 'The Rocket' Laver is scheduled to be discharged from the UCLA Medical Center today -- one month to the day after suffering a moderate stroke while giving a television interview to ESPN, part of a series on the 20 greatest sportsmen of the century.

Laver, who turned 60 earlier this month, will be accompanied on his way home by wife Mary and son Rick. Though the tennis great has trouble speaking, he is expected to make a brief statement at a news conference on the steps outside the main entrance to the hospital before leaving the premises.

The Australian who has made his home in Newport Beach, California, was moved out of the intensive care unit on August 12, and to the neuro-rehabilitation unit a day later.

A week ago, Laver was quoted as saying, 'I'm feeling very good.'

"While seated in a wheelchair, he was throwing a tennis ball with his right hand and swinging a tennis racket with his left hand," Dr. Eric Aldrich, a neuro-rehabilitation specialist, said last week.

Agencies