Evonne Goolagong

Early years

Evonne Goolagong Cawley was born on July 31, 1951, in Griffith, NSW, Australia. She was a member of the Wiradjuri people, and the first indigenous Australian to win a Wimbledon Tennis Championship in 1971. In fact, she is the first and only aboriginal Australian to become an international tennis player. Though she was aboriginal, racism was rampant against aborigines in her early years. She did not really identify as aboriginal until later in life. Aborigines were not even counted in the Australian population census. She was brought up as a white, despite having aboriginal blood in her. She became an international tennis star and champion, paving the way for other indigenous athletes (apart from boxers). Cathy Freeman, the indigenous Australian champion athlete would have had her as a mentor.

Evonne, like Cathy Freeman and many aborigines, grew up in poverty. Evonne was one of 8 children, born to a sheep shearer and his wife, Melinda. Barellin, a small country town, where Evonne spent most of her early years was wheat and sheep country near Sydney. Actually it was aboriginal country, but whites did not use such terms then.

Evonne's parents knew nothing of tennis, but a local called Bill Kurtzman noticed her watching tennis through the fence of the tennis courts. She went on to the court. Vic Edwards, from Sydney, was notified of her natural talent on the court by two of his assistants. He visited up country and saw her play. He noticed her potential. She had then, and retained a graceful style, which I have seen at Kooyong. She had speed, lightening reflexes and a good temperament.

Knowing that Evonne wouldn't be able to develop in the bush, Edwards convinced her parents to let her move to Sydney and move to Sydney to live with him. Evonne moved to his place in 1967 at the age of 13. Edwards coached her and raised her. She wasn't raised as an aboriginal and Evonne has spoken out about some difficulties she had with Edwards.

Edwards however had spotted the talent that would eventually result in two Wimbledon, one French, and four Australian championships and a 1988 posting to the Hall of Fame.

Her career

Evonne's rise was rapid. On her second world tour, in 1971, just before turning 20, Goolagong beat countrywoman Helen Gourlay to win the French. A month later, in her last act as a teenager, seeded third, she stunned defending champion and her girlhood idol, Margaret Court, in the Wimbledon final.

Called Sunshine Supergirl in London, she captivated crowds wherever she played with her graceful movement and gracious manner. She won Wimbledon again after 9 years, in 1980, her last tournament triumph beating Evert, the only Wimbledon singles championship to end in a tie-breaker.

By then she had married Englishman Roger Cawley and had the first of their two children. Thus she was the first mother to win since Dorothea Douglass Chambers 66 years before. At Wimbledon, Evonne was 49-9 in singles, 21-7 in doubles, 19-8 in mixed.

Evonne retires

Evonne retired after the 1983 season. She won the Virginia Slims championship in 1974 and 1976, both over Evert, and had career totals of 43 singles and nine doubles titles, and $1,399,431 in prize money.

She couldn't quite make it at the US Open, the only woman to lose the final four successive years, 1973 through 1976. Her most winning seasons were :1973 with nine titles, including wins over Evert in the Italian and Cincinnati finals and 1976, winning eight titles.

A seven-year mainstay of Australia's Federation Cup team, she led the way to Cups in 1971, 1973 and 1974 and finals in 1975 and 1976.

Later years

When she returned to Australia for her mother's funeral in 1991, she experienced an epiphany on seeing the rituals of her Aborigine people. "I realized that I had spent too much time away," says Goolagong, 46, who had left home at 13 to pursue her dream of a career in tennis. "I wanted to know who my parents were, who I was."

She returned to Australia to live in 1991 at Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and has travelled around Australia, coming to understand the importance of her Aboriginal heritage and introducing her American born children to their indigenous culture. She was a member of the Board of the Australian Sports Commission from 1995-1997. Since 1997, she has held the position of Sports Ambassador to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Communities.

Since 2000 Goolagong Cawley (she now uses both names) has made an increasing commitment to Australian women's tennis, which has fallen on hard times in terms of the glamour international events, and was appointed captain of the Australian Federation Cup team in 2002. In 2003 she was winner for the Oceania region of the International Olympic Committee's 2003 Women and Sports Trophy.

Grand slam record

Australian Open Singles 1974-77 (4)
Singles finalist 1971-73
Doubles 1971, 1974-76, 77


French Open Singles 1971 (1)
Singles finalist 1972
Mixed finalist 1972


Wimbledon Open Singles 1971, 1980 (2)
Singles finalist 1972, 75, 76
Doubles 1974
Doubles finalist 1971
Mixed finalist 1972


USA Singles finalist 1973-76


Italian Singles 1973
Doubles finalist 1979
Fed Cup 1971-76, 1982

Glossary of tennis terms

Glossary

* Ace – a service of a tennis ball that is not returned by an opponent and is deemed to be IN play by the umpire
* Ad court – the left side of the court of each player
* Advantage – when one player wins a point from a deuce and needs one more point to win the game
* Alley – the area of the court between the singles and doubles sidelines, also known as the tramlines
* Approach shot – a shot used as a setup as the player runs up to the net, often using underspin
* ATP – Association of Tennis Professionals, the men's professional circuit
* Backhand – a method of wielding a tennis racquet where the player hits the tennis ball with a stroke that comes across their body with the back of their racquet hand facing the ball
* Backswing – the portion of a swing before the ball is hit
* Bagel – winning a set 6-0. A double bagel is winning 6-0, 6-0.
* Ball Boy – a person, male or female, tasked with retrieving tennis balls from the court that have gone out of play, usually juniors at Atp events
* Baseline – the chalk line at the farthest ends of the court indicating the boundary of the area of play.
* Baseliner – a player who plays around the baseline during play and relies on the quality his or her ground strokes
* Big serve – a forceful serve, usually giving an advantage in the point for the server
* Block – a defensive shot with relatively little backswing, usually while returning a serve
* Bread stick – winning a set 6-1. See also bagel
* Break – to lose a game to an opponent when you are serving
* Break point – one point away from a break
* Closed stance – hitting the ball with the body facing between parallel to the baseline and backturned to the opponent; it is known as a classic technique.
* Chip – blocking a shot with underspin
* Chip and charge – an aggressive strategy to return the opponent's serve with underspin and move forward to the net
* Chop – a shot with extreme underspin
* Counterpuncher – a defensive baseliner. See tennis strategy
* Court – the area designated for playing a game of tennis
* Crosscourt – hitting the ball diagonally into the opponent's court
* Deep – a shot that lands near the baseline, as opposed to near the net
* Deuce – the score 40-40 in a game. A player must win two consecutive points from a deuce before winning the game. See advantage Deuce court – the right side of the court of each player
* Dink – hitting a shot with no pace
* Dirtballer – a clay court specialist
* Double Fault – two faults in a row in one point, causing the player serving to lose the Point
* Doubles – a tennis game played by four players, two per side of the court
* Down the line – hitting the ball straight ahead into the opponent's court
* Drop shot – a play in which the player hits the ball lightly enough to just go over the net; designed to catch a player off guard who is away from the net
* Drop volley – a drop shot executed from a volley
* Fault – an unsuccessful serve that fails to place the ball in the correct area of play therefore not starting the Point
* First Service – the first of the two serves of a tennis ball a player is allowed at the beginning of a Point.
* Flat – e.g. a flat serve; a shot with relatively no spin
* Follow through – the portion a swing after the ball is hit
* Foot fault – a fault caused by the server stepping into the tennis court
* Forehand – a method of wielding a tennis racquet where the player hits the tennis ball with a stroke that comes from behind their body with the front of their racquet hand facing the ball
* Game point – one point away to win the game.
* Golden set – winning a set without losing a point
* Golden Slam – winning the Grand Slam and the tennis Olympic gold medal in a calendar year
* Grand Slam – the four most prestigious tournaments in a year: the Australian Open, the French Open (or Roland Garros), Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Winning the Grand Slam is winning all four in a calendar year.
* Groundies – see Groundstroke
* Groundstroke – a forehand or backhand shot that is executed after the ball bounces once on the court
* Hail Mary – an extremely high lob, for defensive purposes
* Head – (racquet) the portion of the racket that contains the strings
* Hold – winning the game when serving
* I-formation – (in doubles) a formation where the server and his partner stand on the same side of the court (deuce- or ad-court) before starting the point
* Inside-out – running around one side (e.g. the backhand side) and hitting a crosscourt shot
* Inside-in – running around one side and hitting it down the line; less popular than the inside-out
* Jamming – to serve or return straight to the opponent's body
* Kick serve – a type of spin serve that bounces high
* Lawn Tennis – tennis played on a court laid out on a grass covered surface
* Let – when the ball from a serve touches the net but enters the opponent's half of the court within the play area. The point is replayed Line Judge – a person designated to observe the passage of tennis balls over the boundary lines of the court. A Line Judge can declare that a play was within or outside of the play area and cannot be overruled by the players. A line Judge must defer to an Umpire's decision, even when it contradicts their own observations.
* Lob – a stroke in tennis where the ball is lifted high above the net with the intention of it going over the opposing player in the case of him being close to the net, thus nearly guaranteeing the point
* Love – zero (score)
* Love game – a shutout game won without the other player scoring
* Match point – a situation when the player who is leading needs one more point to win the match
* Mini-break – to win a point from the opponent's serve in a tiebreak
* Mixed Doubles – a tennis game played by four players, two players are male, two are female, one of each player sex per side of the court
* Moonball – an extremely high lob
* No-Man's Land – the area between the service line and the baseline, where a player is most vulnerable
* Open stance – hitting the ball with the body facing between parallel to the baseline and facing the opponent; it is known as a modern technique.
* Out – any ball that lands outside the play area
* Overrule – reversing a call from the linesperson, done by the umpire
* Passing shot – A shot that passes by the opponent at the net, but not over him (see lob)
* Poaching – (in doubles) an aggressive move where the player at net moves to volley a shot intended for his/her partner
* Point – the period of play between the first successful service of a ball to the point at which that ball goes out of play
* Pusher – a player who does not try to hit winners, but only to return it safely
* Putaway – a shot to try to end the point from an advantageous situation
* Racquet – a bat with a long handle and a large looped head with a string mesh tautly stretched across it, made of wood, metal or some other synthetic material, that is used by a tennis player to hit the tennis ball during a game of tennis - (see also Racket)
* Rally – (Following the service of a tennis ball) – A series of return hits of the ball that ends when one or other player fails to return the ball within the court boundary or fails to return a ball that falls within the play area.
* Referee – a person in charge of enforcing the rules in a tournament, as opposed to a tennis match (see Umpire)
* Retriever – a defensive baseliner. See tennis strategy
* Set point – one point away from winning a set
* Singles – a tennis game played by two players
* Second Service – the second and final of the two serves of a tennis ball a player is allowed at the beginning of a Point
* Serve – to begin a point by hitting the ball into the opponents half of the court
* Serve and volley – a strategy to serve and immediately move forward to make a volley and hopefully a winner
* Slice – (rally) hitting a tennis ball with underspin; (service) serving with sidespin
* Spin – rotation of the ball as it moves through the air, affecting its trajectory and bounce. See Backspin & Topspin
* Split step – a footwork technique by doing a small hop just before the opponent is hitting the ball
* Straight sets – a match victory in which the victor never lost a set.
* Tanking – to purposely lose a match, because of poor mental game or others. Or, to simply purposely lose one unnecessary set, so as to focus energy and attention on the final and match-deciding set
* Tennis Ball – a soft, hollow, air filled rubber ball coated in a synthetic fur used in the game of tennis
* Tee – the centre of no-man's land, where the lines of the ad court and deuce court service boxes form a tee.
* Tiebreak – a special game at the score 6-6 in a set to decide the winner of the set; the winner is the first to reach at least 7 points with a difference of 2 from the opponent.
* Topspin – spin of a ball that goes forward over the top of the ball, causing the ball to dip and bounce higher
* Tramline – a line defining the limit of play on the side of a singles or doubles court.
* Underspin – spin of a ball that goes forward; the spin is underneath the ball, causing the ball to float and bounce lower
* Umpire – (during play) – an independent person designated to enforce the rules of the game in a match, usually sitting on a high chair beside the net
* Unforced error – during play, an error in a service or return shot that cannot be attributed to any factor other than poor judgement by the player.
* Walkover – an unopposed victory. A walkover may be awarded as a bye, or more commonly because the opponent defaulted by being disqualified or failing to attend the match—including after withdrawling due to injury.
* Wild card – a player let by organizers to play in a tournament, even if his/her rank is not adequate or does not register in time
* Winner – (rally) a forcing shot that can not be reached by the opponent and wins the point; (service) a forcing serve that is reached by the opponent, but is not returned properly, and wins the point
* WTA – Women's Tennis Association, the women's professional circuit

Only tennis now

I have set up a new blog at my site. It is Word Press.
Click the link in the title.

However I will be using this blog mainly for tennis now.