Aussies dominate the greatest show on grass to sweep the 1976 Australian Open

IT WAS the greatest show on grass, and the Aussies were on top. Check out the wild facial hair, mini-dresses and the massive upset that made the 1976 Australian Open special.

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THE 1970s was the decade that fashion forgot but, at this distance, it’s easy to forget it was also a time when Australia ruled the tennis world.

That’s exactly what happened at the Australian Open at Kooyong in January 1976, when Australians took out every major prize at their home grand slam tournament.

The 1976 tournament was also the last time an Australian won the men’s singles title.

That year, even the men’s quarter-finals were an all-Aussie affair.

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Mark Edmondson, ranked 212 in the world, battled through the draw to meet defending champion John Newcombe in the final.

Edmondson had worked hard to get there. Up to the quarter-finals, each of his matches went to four or five sets.

Mark Edmondson (r) shakes hands with John Newcombe (l) after winning the Australian Open Mens Final.

He beat Dick Crealy in the quarters in straight sets and Ken Rosewall in the semis in four.

The final was played in blistering 40C heat with 70km/h winds that at one stage blew the umpires’ chairs across the court.

Edmondson dropped the first set in a tie-breaker but won the next three — the third set in a tie-

breaker — to win the title 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-1.

Perhaps awed by the occasion, Edmondson dropped his trophy on the winner’s rostrum.

He remains the lowest ranked player ever to win a grand slam singles title.

It was also the only grand slam title in Edmondson’s six career title wins.

He won 34 doubles titles including five at grand slam events (four at the Australian Open and one at the French Open), was ranked 15 in the world at his peak in 1982 and was part of the Australian

team that won the Davis Cup in 1983. He retired after the 1988 Australian Open.

By comparison, Evonne Goolagong Cawley cruised through to her final against Czech star Renata Tomanova in her bid to defend the singles titles she won at Kooyong in 1974 and 1975.

Sure, there was a tie-breaker here and there, but Goolagong Cawley was not pushed to three sets at any stage.

Goolagong with trophy after beating Tomanova in the final of the Australian Open.

She beat Aussies Lesley Bowrey in the quarter-finals and Helen Gourlay in the semis before

overpowering Tomanova 6-2, 6-2 in the final.

It was Goolagong Cawley’s third straight Australian Open win, and she had one more to come, in December 1977 (the Australian Open was held both in January and December that year).

She won three other grand slam tournaments (the French Open and Wimbledon in 1971 and

Wimbledon again in 1980 among her 82 career singles title victories, and was part of an Australia Federation Cup win three times.

She retired in 1983.

But Goolagong Cawley wasn’t done at the 1976 Australian Open. She shared the women’s doubles title with Helen Gourlay, who defeated Lesley Bowrey and Renata Tomanova.

Poor weather saw the final decided by a single set. Goolagong Cawley and Gourlay won that set 8-1.

Goolagong in full flight during the 1976 Australian Open.

The win was one of her 46 women’s doubles titles including four at the Australian Open and another at Wimbledon in 1974.

She also won four career mixed doubles titles including the 1971 French Open.

John Newcombe lost the men’s singles final but didn’t come away empty-handed. He and partner

Tony Roche beat fellow Aussies Ross Case and Geoff Masters 7-6, 6-4.

Kooyong remained the home of Australian Open tennis until Melbourne Park opened in 1988.

In many ways, the 1976 Australian Open was the end of a magical era in Australian tennis that ran from the 1950s to the ‘70s.

Newcombe and Roche fight hard during the 1976 Australian Open.

Newcombe, whose name is mentioned alongside other champions including Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver, had been the world’s number one player as recently as 1974 and won his last Australian Open in 1975.

He is considered the last Australian man to dominate the tennis world.

Goolagong Cawley, who overtook the great Margaret Court in terms of her stature in the game in the early 1970s, won her last grand slam tournament at Wimbledon in 1980 and was number one aslate as 1976 but, inevitably, her grip on the tennis world would weaken.

The age of Australia as a world tennis power was slipping away.

Tournament wins and even grand slam victories achieved by Australians since that time have never reached the heights we saw in the mid- ‘70s.

@JDwritesalot