ITF

P R O F I L E 06 ITFWorld // SPRING 2018 The final sequence has not been written yet, but at 66, Goolagong Cawley's current wish is "to see the first peoples recognised in our constitution. I'll try and put it out there as much as I possibly can, and maybe it will sink into some people's minds. I think it will, but everything seems to be taking a long time, doesn't it?" Clearly, this national treasure is far more than just a former tennis player, albeit one who owns 82 singles trophies, many of them now housed in the National Museum in Canberra. Indeed, the frightened girl who hid under the bed in her south-west New South Wales home in the 1950s for fear of becoming part of the nation's 'Stolen Generation' – when many indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of various government policies – is now a woman celebrated for having given so much. Not just to the sport that marvelled at her smooth- HAD A FILM BEEN MADE OF EVONNE GOOLAGONG CAWLEY'S REMARKABLE LIFE STORY, IT MIGHT HAVE OPENED WITH THE image of a shy, tousle-haired young Aboriginal girl peering enviously through a fence at a tennis clinic being held in a small town deep in the Australian outback. It could have continued at the black-tie Champions' Ball at Wimbledon, celebrating the teen winner of the ladies' singles in 1971 and the gracious mother whose historic success in 1980 was the last of her seven Grand Slam singles titles. The focus might then have shifted to four words: Dream, Believe, Learn, Achieve. Goolagong Cawley's personal mantra is now shared by the foundation that bears her famous name. Its mission: using tennis as the vehicle to improve the health and education of Australia's indigenous youth. Evonne Goolagong Cawley pictured on court in 2017 P R O F I L E "Really, my career is about giving back - doing the same that the townspeople did for me" E V O N N E G O O L A G O N G C A W L E Y

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