The golden era

From the early 1950s, Australian men won major titles and Davis Cups with a regularity that has never been matched. A small, distant country produced a string of world-class players, many of them shaped by one man: the Davis Cup captain-coach Harry Hopman.

Harry Hopman

Henry Christian Hopman was born in Glebe, Sydney, on 12 August 1906. He began playing at 13 and, playing barefoot, won an open singles tournament on a school court. A fine player himself, he became captain-coach of 22 Australian Davis Cup teams from 1939 to 1967, winning a record 16 titles.

Hopman also wrote a newspaper column, and in late 1951 he used it to raise money to keep Frank Sedgman in the amateur ranks for another year. The Hopman Cup, an international team event played in Perth, was named in his honour.

Frank Sedgman

Frank Sedgman, born in 1927, was the first star of the era. He won five major singles titles and nine major doubles titles as an amateur, and in 1951 he and Ken McGregor won the men's doubles Grand Slam. Between 1948 and 1952 he won 22 major titles across singles, doubles and mixed doubles. He was ranked world No. 1 amateur from 1950 to 1952 by several experts and led Australia to Davis Cup victories in 1950, 1951 and 1952. He emphasised fitness, with circuit running, weightlifting and sandhill running. He turned professional in 1953.

Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall

Two Sydney teenagers, both born in 1934, became the faces of Australian tennis in the 1950s. Lew Hoad played a powerful attacking game; Ken Rosewall was famous for his backhand, though his serve was accurate rather than powerful. They were friends and rivals throughout long careers.

Hoad won four major singles titles as an amateur, the Australian and French Championships and two Wimbledons, and was part of four Davis Cup-winning teams between 1952 and 1956. In 1956, Hoad and Rosewall won all the major men's doubles titles except the French, which Rosewall missed. Hoad turned professional in 1957. Serious back problems plagued his career.

Rosewall won 147 singles titles, including eight Grand Slam tournaments and a record 15 pro majors. At the 1971 Australian Open, he became the first man in the Open Era to win a major without dropping a set. His top-level career stretched from the early 1950s to the 1970s.

Roy Emerson

Roy Emerson was born on a farm in Blackbutt, Queensland, in 1936. He won 12 major singles titles and 16 major doubles titles, a total of 28, the all-time record for a man. All his singles majors came before the Open Era. He is the only man to complete the career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles, and he was a member of a record eight Davis Cup-winning teams between 1959 and 1967.

Rod Laver

The era's greatest star won the Grand Slam in 1962 and again in 1969. Read our Rod Laver guide.

John Newcombe and Tony Roche

John Newcombe, born in 1944, won 26 major titles, namely seven in singles, 17 in men's doubles and two in mixed doubles. His first major singles title came at Wimbledon in 1967. He was a member of five Davis Cup-winning teams.

Tony Roche, from Tarcutta in New South Wales, won the 1966 French Championships and 15 major doubles titles, 12 of them with Newcombe. He later coached Ivan Lendl, Pat Rafter, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt.

Amateurs and professionals

The golden era coincided with a split in tennis. Until 1968, the majors and Davis Cup were for amateurs only. Many Australian stars, including Sedgman, Hoad, Rosewall and Laver, turned professional and disappeared from the majors for years. When the Open Era began in 1968, several returned and won again.

Why the golden era happened

Three of the four majors were played on grass in this period, Australia had its own strong network of state championships, and Hopman's teams kept winning the Davis Cup. The era left records, such as Emerson's 28 majors and Laver's two Grand Slams, that still stand.

The golden era in perspective

It is tempting to describe the golden era only through its trophies, but the conditions behind it matter too. Tennis was hugely popular in Australia after the Second World War. Grass courts were common in suburbs and country towns, and state associations ran busy junior programs. The Davis Cup gave young players a clear goal and a national stage. Promising juniors could see a direct route from local competitions to the Australian team.

The amateur rules had a major effect. Amateur players could not earn prize money, so many of the best Australians accepted professional contracts in their early twenties. That meant leaving the major tournaments and the Davis Cup. The professional tour of the 1950s and 1960s produced some of the finest tennis of the period, but it was played away from the main championships and is far less well recorded. This is why Rosewall's 15 pro majors sit alongside his eight Grand Slam titles in any full account of his career.

Further reading

Players' autobiographies and contemporary newspaper reports are the richest sources for this period. The National Library of Australia's Trove service gives free access to many digitised newspapers, which carry match reports from Kooyong, White City and Memorial Drive.

Emerson's records

Roy Emerson was the first man to win 12 major singles titles, a record that stood for 30 years until Pete Sampras passed it in 2000. He won five consecutive Australian titles from 1963 to 1967, a record that still stands, and is the only man to complete the career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles.

A note on sources

We check each fact on this page against the references listed below, and we remove claims we cannot verify rather than guess. Records in tennis are sometimes revised as historians study old results more closely, particularly for the amateur and professional tours before 1968. If you spot an error, please use our contact page and include a source, and we will review it. This guide is general historical information. It is not affiliated with any player, club or governing body.

Related guides

Explore Australia and the Davis Cup, Rod Laver and the early pioneers.