Roy Emerson served up a career the whole nation can be proud of

When Roy Emerson was showing talent as a teenager on the tennis court in the 1950s, his career goals were firmly in mind.

Roy Emerson. Picture: Fiona Hamilton

When Roy Emerson was showing talent as a teenager on the tennis court in Brisbane in the 1950s, his career goals were lofty but set firmly in mind.

“Every tennis player in our era, we were mainly trying to win Wimbledon. The next thing was to try to win your own country’s tournament, the Australian Open, and then to play Davis Cup,” he told The Weekend Australian.”

In an extraordinary career, the Queenslander managed to meet those goals several times over.

He is most proud of a couple of Wimbledon titles among his 12 major ­titles. He was a pivotal member of the Davis Cup team that dominated the competition from 1959 to 1967. And his ­record of six Australian Open ­titles has been equalled in recent years by Novak Djokovic and Roger Fed­erer, but is yet to be broken.

As brilliant as his record is, the 82-year-old is stunned and ­delighted to be honoured as a Companion of the Order of Australia today. “It is incredible. This is the icing on the cake,” he said. “It is an amazing honour and I am so grateful to all the people that made it possible, and to the government for choosing me.”

Emerson has spent the past week enjoying the tennis at Melbourne Park while catching up with best mates from his playing career. On turning professional in 1967, Emerson moved with wife Joy and daughter Heidi to Newport Beach near Los Angeles. He has lived there for 50 years but as ­Emerson said yesterday: “We are still very much Australian.”