Australian women tennis players first started marking their mark in the world rankings in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

 

Lesley Bowrey won 13 major titles between 1961 and 1967. Margaret Court was the next female star winning the Grand Slam in 1971 whilst in the whole 1970’s Evonne Goolangong Cawley dominated the world stage winning the Wimbledon singles and the French Open in 1971.

Lesley Bowrey

Lesley Bowrey was the first Australian woman to win two French Open titles in 1964 & 1965. She won a massive 13 major titles including seven international doubles, the Australian, French, Wimbledon and the USA Open titles.

 

Bowrey participated in the inaugural  Federation Cup competition in 1963 and went on to captain Australia’s Federation Cup team between 1994 and 2000.

 

Margaret Court

Margaret Court is the most successful female tennis player of all time. Billie Jean King nicknamed her “The Arm” for her power and consistency. She was a strong player known for powerful ground strokes and a hard serve and was voted as world number one player on three separate occasions.

 

She is a ten time winner of the Australian Singles champion, a French Open winner four times, the USA Open five times and Wimbledon on three occasions.

 

In total, Margaret Court won 62 major singles titles, doubles and mixed. Her closest rival is Martina Navratilova with 56 titles.

 

In 1970, Margaret Court completed the Grand Slam, winning all four international tennis competitions in the same year.

 

Evonne Goolagong Cawley

A player who dominated Australian women’s tennis in the 1970’s  with four consecutive Australian Singles titles from 1974 to 1977. In 1971 Evonne won the Wimbledon Singles title together with the French Open. She won Wimbledon again in 1980. She was ranked in the top 10 for nine years.

Miss Cawley was the first of the glamour girls in world ladies tennis and was an inspiration to many young girls to take up the sport.

 

Her game was based on speed and agility and she was very graceful around the court.

 

Wendy Turnbull

Wendy was one of the last Australian greats, she made it to the final of every Open apart from Wimbledon. For eight years between 1977 and 1984 she attained a top ten ranking.

 

Wendy was highly successful in Doubles, winning Wimbledon in 1978, the French in 1979 and the USA twice in 1979 and 1982.

 

She was also the Mixed Doubles champion five times in France and Wimbledon between 1979 and 1980.

 

Wendy was famed for her foot speed around the court.  

 

It is amazing that these four Australian players dominated the sport for so long during such an extended period of time. Apart from the USA no one country has dominated tennis so much in the ladies game.

 

It shows the power and popularity of the Australian game to develop so many top players in one sport.   

 

If you want to improve your game and maybe even fancy the idea about emulating one of your tennis heroes then Tennis World Chatswood are here to help!

 

To find out more about our kids and adult tennis coaching lessons in Sydney, contact our friendly team today.