Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley, AO, MBE was born 31 July 1951 in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia and is a former World No. 1. She was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s, when she won 14 Grand Slam titles: seven in singles (four Australian Open, two Wimbledon and one French Open), six in women's doubles, and one in mixed doubles.

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 women's singles titles at both the French Open and Wimbledon, creating a sensation and becoming an instant celebrity in Australia and around the world. In the Wimbledon final, 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 title at the Australian Open four times. She was also the runner-up at Wimbledon three times. At the US Open, she lost in the final four consecutive years (1973-1976), never winning the title.

Goolagong's final Grand Slam title came at Wimbledon in 1980. By this time, she was a 29-year-old mother and surprised the tennis world by beating Tracy Austin in a semifinal and Chris Evert in the final, to win her second Wimbledon and seventh Grand Slam singles crown. She was the first mother in 66 years to win the Wimbledon singles title, the previous one being English woman Dorothea Lambert-Chambers in 1914. She was the last mother to win a Grand Slam singles title until Kim Clijsters accomplished the feat by winning the 2009 U.S. Open.