Tennis (1904 - )

Tennis Australia began as the Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia in 1904, when it was housed in Sydney, New South Wales. At this time, the Association was affiliated with New Zealand for the purposes of organising the Davis Cup and the Australasian Championships, but the two national bodies separated in 1922. In 1926, the Association moved to Melbourne where it became the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia and was presided over by (Sir) Norman Brookes until 1955. Following a worldwide growth in open tennis in the 1970s and 1980s, the Association became a company in 1984 and was renamed Tennis Australia in 1986.

The first Australian Open was held in Melbourne in 1905 with just seventeen entrants. In 1924 it was designated a national event, and was rotated around State capitals until 1972. It has been held in Melbourne each year since. Ladies’ singles and doubles were not included in the championship until 1922, and professionals could not compete until 1969. The Open is now an international Grand Slam event.

Notable Australian women tennis players include Evonne Cawley (Goolagong), who won Wimbledon, and Margaret Court (Smith), who won twenty-four Grand Slam titles in the twelve years before 1973. Nancye Bolton (Wynne) won twenty Open titles, and ten national doubles titles with Thelma Long (Coyne).

Played

• Cawley, Evonne Fay Goolagong (1951 - )
• Court, Margaret Jean (1942 - )
• Le Messurier, Kathleen
• McQuillan, Rachel (1971 - )
• Smylie, Elizabeth (1963 - )
• Turnbull, Wendy (1952 - )

Related Corporate Bodies

• Tennis Australia (1904 - )

Books

• Johnson, Joseph, Grand slam Australia: the story of the Australian open tennis championships, Courtney Books, Newport, Vic, 1985, 361 pp. [ Details... ]
• Metzler, Paul, Great players of Australian tennis, Harper & Row, Sydney, 1979, 202 pp. [ Details... ]
• Whitington, R.S., An illustrated history of Australian tennis, Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1975, 126 pp. [ Details... ]

Edited Books

• Warren, Ian (ed.), Gender, theory and sport: the formative years of tennis and snowboarding, Australian Society for Sports History, Melbourne, 2005, 127 pp. [ Details... ]

See also

• Court, Margaret Smith, Court on Court: a life in tennis, McGann, George, Allen, London, 1976, 211 pp. [ Details... ]