Margaret Court to Roy Emerson and Rod Laver - the best of Australia’s tennis

Australia, which hosts the first Grand Slam event of the year, boasts of a rich and glorious tennis history.

The country rose as a tennis superpower in the 1950s thanks to the exploits of players like Ken Rosewall, Frank Sedgman and Ashley Cooper as Australia won 15 Davis Cup titles between 1950 and 1967.

Success continued throughout the 60s and 70s with Margaret Court, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver dominating the Grand Slam scene. Australian tennis players have won a total of 166 Grand Slam titles in history. Only players from the United States - with 351 Grand Slams - have won more.

Australia have also won the Davis Cup 28 times and are seven-time Billie Jean King Cup champions. Australian tennis players have also won six Olympic medals - one gold, one silver and four bronze - to date.

Here’s a look at some of the greatest players in Australian tennis history:

Margaret Court

Arguably one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Margaret Court has won 24 women’s singles Grand Slam titles - the most in history. With an additional 19 women’s doubles and 21 mixed doubles titles, her tally of 64 majors is also unmatched.

The prolific Aussie rose to fame at the age of 17 in 1960 after winning the first of her seven consecutive Australian Open single titles.

She completed a career Grand Slam after conquering the Wimbledon crown in 1963 at the age of 21. In 1970, she won the calendar Grand Slam after clinching all four majors in a single year.

Margaret is also one of only three players in tennis history to have won the Boxed Set - winning singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles across all four Grand Slam tournaments. She remains the only person to have done it twice.

Margaret is also one of six players to have won a double career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles. She has also won the Billie Jean King Cup (earlier known as the Federation Cup) with Australia on four occasions.

Roy Emerson

Roy Emerson is arguably the most accomplished men’s player in the pre-Open Era of tennis. The Australian won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles during his career. Emerson’s record of 28 Grand Slam titles is yet to be broken in men’s tennis.

He is also the only male tennis player to have won a career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles competitions and was the first to achieve a double career Grand Slam in men’s singles.

Emerson’s record of 12 Grand Slam titles in men’s singles stood for nearly 30 years before it was broken by Pete Sampras in 2000. He won his first Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open in 1961 and completed a career slam by winning the Wimbledon in 1963.

He won six Australian Open titles - five of those on the bounce. The record stood for several decades before it was broken by Novak Djokovic in 2019. Emerson was also a part of eight Davis Cup-winning Australian sides.

Rod Laver

Rod Laver is one of the most celebrated names in Australian tennis history and his achievements speak for themselves. One of only two men to have won a calendar Grand Slam, Laver is the only person to have done it twice.

He won his first calendar Slam in 1962 during the Amateur Era and achieved the historic feat once again just seven years later, becoming the only men’s player to do so during the Open Era.

Laver burst on to the scene with Australian Open success on home soil in 1960 and completed a career Grand Slam after winning the French Open and US Open just two years later.

He finished his career with 11 Grand Slam titles and eight Pro Majors. He also won the Davis Cup title on four occasions during an era when the Davis Cup was considered to be as prestigious as the four majors.

The main venue for the Australian Open - the Rod Laver Arena - has also been named in his honour.

Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Evonne Goolagong Cawley was one of the leading tennis players in the world in the 1970s and early 1980s. At the age of 19, she rose to prominence after winning the French Open and Wimbledon singles titles in 1971 and also won the Australian Open doubles title with Margaret Court that same year.

Cawley won the Australian Open singles and doubles titles on four consecutive occasions between 1974 and 1977. However, despite playing the women’s singles finals for four successive years between 1973 and 1976, US Open glory and a career Grand Slam proved elusive.

She won three Federation Cup tournaments with Australia in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cawley finished her career with 14 Grand Slam titles - seven in singles, six in women’s doubles and one in mixed doubles.

Ken Rosewall

Ken Rosewall was one of the pioneers behind Australia’s rise as a tennis superpower in the 1950s. Over the course of his career, he won 147 singles titles which included eight Grand Slams and 15 Pro Majors. Rosewall also had a prolific doubles career, winning nine Grand Slams in that discipline and another 15 Pro Majors.

He won the Australian Open and French Open for the first time in 1953 and claimed the US Open for the first time in 1956. Despite playing four Wimbledon finals between 1953 and 1974, he failed to add the title to his collection.

Rosewall became the first man to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era without dropping a set at the Australian Open 1971. A year later, he went on to become the oldest Grand Slam champion in the Open Era after winning his fourth Australian Open title in 1972 at the age of 37 years and two months.

Along with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, he is the only male player to have won a Grand Slam title in three different decades. He has also won three Davis Cup titles with Australia.

Nancy Wynne Bolton

Nancy Wynne Bolton won the Australian Open women’s singles titles six times. Only Margaret Court (11) and Serena Williams (seven) have seen more success in the opening Grand Slam tournament.

Nancy also won 10 women’s doubles and four mixed doubles titles at her home Grand Slam, taking her tally to 20. Only Margaret Court, with 23 overall titles at the Australian Open, has won more.

She also finished as the women’s singles runners-up at the US Open in 1938 and mixed doubles runners-up at the French Open and Wimbledon on three occasions.

Lleyton Hewitt is the most recent Australian to win a men’s singles Grand Slam title. He won the US Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002.

Ashleigh Barty is also a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, having won the French Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open women’s singles crowns between 2019 and 2022 before retiring at just 25 while she was still world No. 1.

The duo of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde made history at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics by winning the gold medal in men’s doubles - Australia’s only top podium finish in tennis at the Summer Games. They also won a silver medal on home turf at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Elizabeth Smylie and Wendy Turnbull won bronze in the women’s doubles at Seoul 1988 while Rachel McQuillan with Nicole Provis came third at Barcelona 1992.

Alicia Molik won Australia’s first and only individual Olympic tennis medal, a bronze in the women’s singles, at Athens 2004. Ash Barty, partnering with John Peers, won a mixed doubles bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.