Australian tennis champions

Australia has produced a remarkable number of tennis champions for a country of its size. This hub profiles some of the greatest, from the amateur heroes of the 1960s to the professionals of the twenty-first century. Each guide covers the player's background, key titles, records and legacy, with sources listed.

Our champion guides

Rod Laver

Born in Rockhampton in 1938, Laver won 11 major singles titles and the calendar Grand Slam in 1962 and 1969. He is credited with 200 singles titles, the most by any player. Read our Rod Laver guide.

Margaret Court

Born in Albury in 1942, Court won 24 major singles titles and 64 majors in total, plus the 1970 Grand Slam. Read our Margaret Court guide.

Evonne Goolagong Cawley

A Wiradjuri woman from Barellan, Goolagong won seven major singles titles, including Wimbledon in 1971 and 1980, and was world No. 1. Read our Evonne Goolagong Cawley guide.

Ash Barty

Born in Ipswich in 1996, Barty won the 2019 French Open, 2021 Wimbledon and 2022 Australian Open, spent 121 weeks at No. 1 and retired at the top. Read our Ash Barty guide.

Modern Australian champions

Pat Cash, Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur kept Australia at the top level from the 1980s to the 2010s. Read our modern champions guide.

Champions at a glance

Golden era champions

The 1950s and 1960s produced Frank Sedgman, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe and Tony Roche, among others. Read our golden era guide.

Comparing champions across eras

Comparing players across eras is difficult. Before 1968, professionals were barred from the majors, so stars like Laver and Rosewall missed years of Grand Slam events. Equipment, surfaces and travel have changed dramatically. Our guides focus on what each player achieved in their own time.

Honours and arenas

Several venues honour Australian champions: Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park, and Pat Rafter Arena at the Queensland Tennis Centre in Brisbane. The Australian Open men's singles trophy is named after Norman Brookes.

Indigenous champions

Evonne Goolagong Cawley, of Wiradjuri descent, and Ash Barty, of the Ngarigo people, both reached world No. 1 and won Wimbledon. Barty has described Goolagong as her mentor and idol.

Explore further

Read about the history of the Australian Open and Australia's Davis Cup record.

Women's records

Margaret Court's 24 major singles titles remain the women's record, and she is the only player to complete a double Boxed Set of every major title in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Goolagong reached seven consecutive Australian Open finals. Stosur was world No. 1 in doubles for 61 consecutive weeks from 2006.

Men's records

Rod Laver's two calendar Grand Slams are unique. Roy Emerson's 28 major titles are the record for a man. Ken Rosewall won a record 15 pro majors. Lleyton Hewitt holds Australia's Davis Cup records for years, ties and matches played.

Champions across generations

Australian champions form a chain that runs through the whole history of the game. Norman Brookes became the first non-British player and the first left-hander to win the men's singles at Wimbledon in 1907. Frank Sedgman, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver dominated the amateur game in the 1950s and 1960s. Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong Cawley led women's tennis in the 1960s and 1970s. Pat Cash, Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt won majors in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Samantha Stosur and Ash Barty carried the line into the 2010s and 2020s.

Each profile on this site sets the player's record in the context of their era: the surfaces, the amateur rules, the travel and the strength of the fields. That context is important, because raw totals can mislead when comparing players decades apart.

How we choose who to profile

We start with players who won major singles titles or reached world No. 1, then add players whose influence went beyond results. Every fact on a profile is drawn from the sources listed at the foot of the page.