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Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (born July 31, 1951) Australian tennis
player, was one of the world's leading women players in the 1970s, twice
winning the women's singles title at Wimbledon. She is considered one of
the greatest Australian tennis players.
Goolagong Cawley was born at Griffith, in the Riverina district
of New South Wales, one of eight children, in an Aboriginal family (she is
a member of the Wiradjuri people). She grew up in Barellan. Her father Kenny
Goolagong was an itinerant sheep shearer. Although Aboriginal people faced
widespread discrimination in rural Australia at this time, she was able to
play tennis in Barellan from childhood, and was fortunate to become a pupil
of a leading coach, Vic Edwards, who came from Sydney to see her play.
After two years training with Edwards in Sydney, Goolagong
played at Wimbledon for the first time in 1970, when she was 18. In 1971
she won the French Open and Wimbledon in succession, creating a sensation
and becoming an instant celebrity in Australia. At Wimbledon she defeated
Margaret Court, the only other Australian woman ever to win the title. She
was the first Australian Aboriginal woman to achieve international fame in
sport - and the first Aboriginal person to do so in any sport other than
football or boxing. In 1971 she was named Australian of the Year and the
Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
During the 1970s Goolagong won the women's singles at the
Australian Open four times in a row (1974 to 1977), and won the doubles title
five times. She lost three Wimbledon finals - to Billie Jean King in 1972
and 1975 and to Chris Evert in 1976, but won the doubles with Peggy Michel
in 1974. She had no luck at the U.S. Open, losing the final four years in
succession (1973 to 1976). She won the Italian Open in 1973. She was a member
of Australia's Federation Cup teams which won the Cup in 1971, 1973 and 1974.
In all Goolagong won 92 professional tournaments.
Goolagong had excellent physical attributes for a tennis
player: she was light, fast and long-limbed, with lightning reflexes and
the ability to cover the court with astonishing agility. At her peak she
was regarded as one of the most graceful and subtle exponents of the women's
game ever seen. She was frequently faulted, however, for lapses of concentration
which cost her several titles. In the Australian press this was referred
to as "Evonne going walkabout" - an Aboriginal term meaning to
wander off into the bush. She relied more on skill and speed than strength,
and was vulnerable to opponents with big serves and greater power, such as
Chris Evert, who beat her twice at the U.S. Open and once at Wimbledon.
In 1975 Goolagong married an English tennis player, Roger
Cawley, and the couple eventually settled in the United States (in Naples,
Florida). This led to some criticism in Australia. In 1980, aged 29 and a
mother, she won Wimbledon again, the crowning achievement of her career.
She retired in 1983, having won US$1,399,431 in prize money - a lot of money
for a female athlete in the 1970s. In 1988 she was admitted to the International
Tennis Hall of Fame. She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire
(MBE) in 1972 and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1982.
After eight years living in the U.S., Evonne and Roger Cawley
bought a home at Noosa Heads, Queensland, in 1991, where they settled with
their two children: a daughter Kelly (born 1977) and a son Morgan (born 1981).
She was a member of the Board of the Australian Sports Commission from 1995
to 1997 and since 1997 she has held the position of Sports Ambassador to
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 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.
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