Evonne Goolagong Cawley
I hope that I am helping to create an understanding and an awareness of what happened to the Aboriginal people.Collection: Hope
It's nice to know you're improving and getting better.
When we used the small-faced racquets and wood racquets, we had to use every part of the court.
My goal is to share information and to educate. But am I an activist? No, no, no. I don't believe in pushing things on people.
Some players feel that winning is everything and that losing is a disaster. Not me. I want the spectators to take home a good memory.
When I went through some racism through my early days and I went back and told Mum... she said, 'Don't worry about that, they're just ignorant.'
I'd much rather people knew me as a good tennis player than as an aboriginal who happens to play good tennis. Of course I'm proud of my race, but I don't want to be thinking about it all the time.
My greatest high was to hit a ball well, to try to do it perfectly, to try different things, whether they came off or not.
I love to fish. I love the peacefulness of being around the water.
I don't think of myself as being colored but of being Australian.
Neither winning nor losing means as much to me as knowing the crowd has enjoyed my match.
I don't want to talk about apartheid... I'm going to South Africa to play tennis and to see the country. That's as far as it goes.
Billie Jean King is the personality of women's tennis.
I went to Willoughby Girls High, I finished my high school certificate and then I did shorthand and typing the next year. Then started travelling and never used it since.
It's wonderful being a mother playing anyway.
I always just thought of myself as a tennis player.
I was protected from a lot of publicity and politics of life.
I certainly had a lot of fun during my career playing tennis, doing the thing I wanted to do and to do it well.
Whenever a car would come down the road, my mum would tell us to hide 'or else the welfare man would take you away.'
When I started I was pretty well the only Aboriginal player who was playing tournaments.
We couldn't afford anything. Suitcase, clothes, everything, Barellan people bought for me.
The white explorers had been my heroes. The Aborigines, I thought they were real savages. That was what I'd been taught and that's what I believed.
I remember I hadn't bought anything for my Mum for Christmas and I actually won an iron, so I was excited that I could take that home for her.
There is no higher honour in sport than being selected to represent your country and I have certainly taken great pride in always giving my best in my position as Fed Cup captain.
Every time I hit the ball I would pretend I was on that magical court at Wimbledon. And then every time I went to sleep at night I would dream about playing at Wimbledon one day.
About three months after I had Kelly, I went and played in Canada. I felt great, I was ready to go and I was very energetic. But as soon as I started playing, I thought 'no, too soon.' I went back home and slept for two days.
If you didn't have power, you had to have touch and serve and volley, which I found very exciting and that's why I love watching Federer play, because of those skills.
Well, Margaret Court was the first one, first professional woman - or maybe man - to actually take it into the gyms. She worked out on her body, she was very strong, very fast on the court.
Racism is about education. Racism is ignorance.
After I was fortunate enough to achieve my dreams on the court, I have done my best to, in turn, help young people achieve theirs.
Every time there was a shiny car, my mum must have worried it was the welfare people coming for her kids. We had no idea.
I was so hungry to learn my history, to really know who I was.
I even opened a nightclub called Evonne's.
I started by hitting balls against walls with an apple crate board.
Tennis, for me, every time I went out on the court, it just gave me such joy to play.
I was just feeling really down and didn't want to play tennis anymore and when I was feeling down like that, what helped me is that I went back to my culture. To walk the Earth.
I went through a tough time after leaving 'tennis.
When I was playing on the tour, I never really thought about the Hall of Fame because you're always thinking about your game and how you can do better.
Because I've had time off, I've learned to appreciate tennis more - to put something back into it.
I have won a few trophies in my time but I have never had a major event name their trophy after me.
I used to say during my career that the biggest gift was having my children.
I know that from my own experience, after I had my daughter Kelly, I felt great. I just wanted to get back on that court.
When you say sorry it creates a better working relationship.
What happened to equal opportunity? Not just in tennis, but everything. It's something that Billie Jean King fought for and she played Bobby Riggs for that, and beat him.
I had to stay in school before I started travelling overseas.
I had a bit of a reputation as a tomboy.
I hated school.
Trees always remind me of Aboriginal people.
Nobody expected me to win Wimbledon. It was something to strive for.
In 1971, big tournaments were very new to me. I just thought Wimbledon was one of the other tournaments.