Evonne Goolagong Cawley AC MBE (b. 1951), Wiradjuri tennis champion, was the number one women's tennis player in the world in 1971 and 1976. Born in the Riverina district, she grew up in Barellan where she learned to hit a tennis ball against a wall with a piece of wood from a fruit crate. When she was thirteen she left her family to live with tennis coach Vic Edwards and his family in Sydney. In 1971, the year she turned professional, she became the second-youngest person to win Wimbledon when she defeated Margaret Court in the women's singles at the age of nineteen. Named Australian of the Year four times, she won every Australian mainland state title and the Australian singles title. After three more Wimbledon finals in the 1970s, in 1980 she defeated Chris Evert and became the first mother to win a Wimbledon singles championship since 1914. Goolagong Cawley and her family moved from Florida to Noosa in 1991. Since then she has encouraged young Aboriginal sportspeople and promoted Indigenous education through the Evonne Goolagong Foundation and the Goolagong National Development Camps.
Press photographer Ern McQuillan OAM was renowned for capturing sportspeople in action. He photographed Goolagong during a game at the height of her career in 1973.
Purchased with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2004
© Michael McQuillan's Classic Photographs
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