Lall started his tennis career on the
grass courts of the Calcutta South Club where he was coached by
Dilip Bose. Lall was a runner-up at the Boys Singles event at the
1958 Wimbledon Championships, losing the final to
Butch Buchholz. At the
1969 Wimbledon Championships Lall nearly caused a significant upset when he was leading first-seeded and world No. 1
Rod Laver by two sets to love in the second round but ultimately lost in five sets to Laver, who went on to win the title and his second
Grand Slam. Lall competed in 18 editions of the Wimbledon Championships between 1957 and 1975. In 1973 he won the
Stourbridge Open at Stourbridge, England against French player
Daniel Contet. He played on the
Indian Davis Cup team from
1959 until
1973, competing in 41 ties and compiling a record of 52 wins and 32 losses. He was part of the team that reached the challenge round in
1966 against Australia but did not play in the challenge round. In doubles, he reached the quarterfinals at the
1962 Australian Championships and the
1966 and
1973 Wimbledon Championships, all with compatriot
Jaidip Mukerjea. Lall won the singles title at the
Indian International Championships in 1961 and 1970 defeating
Carlos Fernandes and
Alex Metreveli in the respective finals. But Lall is most famous for the fact that, in the second round at Wimbledon in 1969, he led the great Rod Laver two sets to love, causing a sensation, before losing to Laver in five sets, after which, Laver went on to win that Wimbledon and, in 1969, his second calendar-year Grand Slam of tennis, having won it before in 1962. Lall was given India's top sports honor, the
Arjuna Award in 1967. Lall played his final professional match in 1979. ==Personal life==