My first live tennis viewing was a fantastic exhibition match between Arthur Ashe and Ken Rosewall at Kooyong in 1974, and I’ve been hooked ever since. There has been some excellent Australian players since that time.
Lleyton has to be number one. He is the only Australian to win two separate Grand Slams in that period (U.S and Wimbledon), and was also runner-up in the U.S Open to Federer, as well as the Australian Open to Safin. He has won a total of 30 ATP titles and was number one for 75 consecutive weeks. He is not everybody’s cup of tea: some don’t like his demeanour on court, and others complain that he lacks a killer shot. But nobody can deny that he always gives 100 per cent.
Pat Rafter runs a close second. He struggled at around 40 or 50 in the rankings for a number of years, and then suddenly emerged in 1997-99 to win consecutive U.S Opens and and jump to number one in the world for one week. He was also runner-up twice at Wimbledon, and a semi-finalist at both the Australian and the French. He won 11 ATP tournaments in the world and had the best kick serve in the business, and retired relatively young at the age of 30.
Pat Cash restored the fortunes of Australian tennis after a long drought by winning Wimbledon in 1987. He was also twice an Australian Open finalist, and a semi-finalist at the U.S Open losing narrowly to Ivan Lendl. He won seven titles in total, and was an outstanding serve and volleyer, but had his career cut short by a terrible run of injuries.
Scud Philipoussis seemed to have all the shots but arguably under-achieved. However, he still reached a U.S Open and Wimbledon final, won 11 titles, and achieved top ten status.
The remaining 11 players arguably sit well below the top four. Peter McNamara won five ATP singles titles and reached number seven in the world before injury intervened. He was best known for his two Wimbledon doubles titles partnering Paul McNamee. McNamee reached no.24 in the world, and won four Grand Slam doubles in total. Their doubles partnership revived Australian tennis after some poor years.
John Alexander was Australia’s David Cup stalwart throughout the 1970s. He won seven ATP titles, reached three Australian Open semi finals, and achieved a highest ranking of number eight.
Wally Masur was a contemporary of Pat Cash who reached the semi finals of both the Australian and US opens, and got to number 15 in the world. John Fitzgerald was another David Cup hero who won six titles, and secured a top 25 ranking.
The two Woodies were the dominant doubles combination of the 1990s, winning 11 Grand Slam doubles together. Todd Woodbridge won 16 Grand Slam doubles in total, and achieved a highest singles ranking of 19. Woodforde won a total of 12 Grand Slam doubles titles, and also achieved a highest singles ranking of 19.
Kim Warwick was runner-up in the Australian Open in 1980, and reached number 15 in the world. Mark Edmondson remains the last Australian male to win the Australian Open in 1976. He won six ATP titles in total, and his highest ranking was 15.
Phil Dent was an Australian Open finalist who won four ATP titles, and achieved a peak ranking of 17. Jason Stoltenberg won four ATP titles, and achieved a ranking of 19.
Other Australian players of note included Wimbledon semi-finalist Rod Frawley, Richard Fromberg, the hopefully still unfulfilled Bernard Tomic, Wayne Arthurs, Ross Case, Geoff Masters, Darren Cahill, Scott Draper and the late Brad Drewett. I did not consider the older greats such as Laver, Rosewall, Newcombe and Roche given they were mostly past their best by the mid-1970s.
The Top 15 Australian Men 1974 – 2014
Lleyton Hewitt
Patrick Rafter
Patrick Cash
Mark Philipoussis
Peter McNamara
Paul McNamee
John Alexander
Wally Masur
John Fitzgerald
Todd Woodbridge
Mark Woodforde
Kim Warwick
Mark Edmondson
Phil Dent
Jason Stoltenberg
About Philip Mendes
Philip Mendes is an academic who follows AFL, soccer, tennis and cricket. He supported Fitzroy Football Club from 1970-1996, and on their death he adopted the North Melbourne Kangaroos as his new team. In his spare time, he occasionally writes about his current and past football teams.
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Being a pedant i need to mention there are players like Cliff Letcher who reached two grand slam doubles finals, and John Marks who recahe dan Australian Open singles final.
Jog my memory, did Darren Cahill reach a US open semi before having a run of injuries whish cruelled his career?
Glen!
Glen – Good points: you are right about Darren Cahill. He did reach the 1988 US Open semi finals – I mentioned him above as just missing the top 15. And Marks came from nowhere to play Vilas in the 1978 Oz final. Never repeated that form though.
Good list, Philip. The other tick in the poo’s box is him winning both his singles rubbers at the Davis Cup final on the French clay. Woodforde probably a better singles player than Woodbridge over the distance, though (Qtr final of Aus Open & a couple of Adelaide titles?).
Dave – agree with you. Scud won that Davis Cup singlehandedly for Australia, and also won the vital tie against Ferrero a few years later in Melbourne after pulling his pectoral muscle. I also thought Woodforde was a more reliable singles player than Woodbridge – he made the 4th round of the other 3 Grand Slams, and beat Scud (after he had beaten Sampras) to reach the semis of the Oz Open. Woodbridge made a Wimbledon semi final, but his serve always seemed to let him down in big singles matches.
True Phil. John Marks played Guilermo Vilas in the Australian Open final in the summer of 78-79, going down in straight sets. He’d started his winning run in the tournmemnt when his oppenent retired after the first set, though i can’t recall who it was: Maybe Jose louis-Clerc, or John Sadri.
It’s interesting looking at how many Australians were ranked in the top 100 in that period yet as had no one in thetop 10, we were lamenting the demise of Australian tennis. All these years later half as many of our men are ranked in the top 200, yet it;s portrayed as a renaissance. Funny how time changes perspectives.
Glen!
Glen – I think it was Clerc who only had to play the 1st round to qualify for the Masters. From memory he arrived in Australia badly jet-lagged just before the match, and was clearly not in a fit state to play. Sadri made the final in 1979 losing to Vilas. I think the major change over the years is the addition of so many Europeans – French, Spanish, Russians, Serbians, Croatians etc. In the 1970s it was still mainly Americans, Australians, Swedes and a few Italians and Eastern Europeans.
That Wally Masur is in the Top 10 players of the last 40 years says everything you need to know about the less than dizzy heights of Australian Men’s Tennis.
For my money, and as subjectively as anything, Scud is the best player of that lot, followed by Cash then Rafter and begrudgingly, Hewitt makes up the top 4.
Sadly (or for whatever reasons) Scud never achieved the titles his talent suggested he would claim.
Cheers
I agree that John Newcombe was past his best from the mid 1970s like other older Australian tennis legends but as the article is from 1974 – 2014, I would definitely put John Newcombe in my own list of 15, ahead of Jason Stoltenberg, who did not win any Grand Slam singles titles in singles or doubles.
I still vividly remember watching John Newcombe beat Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Australian Open at Kooyong in January. John Newcombe also won the Australian Open doubles in 1976. Bewdy Newk.
Of course, Jason Stoltenberg was successful as the coach of Lleyton Hewitt. It’s a shame he could not achieve success coaching Ash Barty. Maybe, that was in the best interests of Ash Barty in the long term because Craig Tyzzer has achieved phenomenal success coaching her in recent years and hopefully a Wimbledon winner’s trophy for Barty tonight will follow.
G’day Phil, another comment from me on your postings .
When you wrote this six and a half years back you mention the ‘still unfilled Bernard Tomic’. Would you now edit the post to describe a player who’s made a million+ dollars, hovered near the top ten, won tournaments but……..
Curious.
Glen!
Nice to receive this updated comment. Although Newk won the Oz Open in Jan 1975, he was largely a part-time player at that point, and I concentrated on those who played most of their careers from 74 onwards. If I was updating today, I would probably add both Alex De Minaur and Nick Kyrgios. John Millman would go close if I extended it to a top 20. With a bit of luck, Alexei Popyrin may go past those three in future years.
Glen – I would describe Tomic as mostly unfulfilled. I would suggest both De Minaur and Kyrgios have gone past him. For all his antics, Kyrgios has held a higher ranking, and beaten lots of top 10 players. De Minaur is a consistent Top 20 player, and may go higher once he increases his serving power.
Ta Phil, you’re very kind to him.
A chap who was twice a junior grand slam champion, was won 4 tournaments, reached the Wimbledon Quarter finals and was ranked inside the top 20 then………………………………………………………………?I doubt if we’ll see much more of him. He’s made lots of $$, so any motivation to scale the tennis heights is long gone.
I find the case of Kyrgios even more challenging, as he is a more naturally gifted player than Tomic. However his attitude is not much better. As I type that I recall he’s made some good public statements on the health risks of Covid 19. Yet on the court he disappoints. The withdrawal at Wimbledon is all too typical. Maybe I’m too harsh, he probably is injured, but in light of what we’ve seen of his career being cynical is not without cause. Now the withdrawal from the Tokyo Olympics because of no crowds is another typical Kyrgios moment.
De Minaur: bombed out quickly at Wimbledon despite being seeded. Hopefully he gets a top 10 berth. He has the ability, can he deal with the expectations?
Glen!