Boris Becker may have been the two-time Wimbledon defending champion but it was 22-year-old Pat Cash who won the men's single championship in straight sets against Ivan Lendl, 7-6; 6-2; 7-5.

Cash was a perennial presence in the Australian Davis Cup team throughout the 1980s but his Wimbledon victory was his only Grand Slam title.

This media segment from Seven Nightly News is a good example of tightly constructed editing. Interspersed with footage of the match itself are interviews with the players and reactions by family members and even Prime Minister Bob Hawke. It gives a complete picture of a moment in time.

This excerpt from a longer documentary shows a young Evonne Goolagong talking about her start in tennis in the small town of Barellan, New South Wales. Evonne is a Wiradjuri woman and she talks about how the media in Australia and overseas has referred to her Aboriginality.

In 1971, Goolagong won both the French Open and Wimbledon. Having defeated Billie Jean King in straight sets in the semi-finals she went on to take out the championship against fellow Australian Margaret Court in the final. She is seen here receiving the trophy from Princess Alexandra.

During her career, Goolagong (later Goolagong-Cawley) won Wimbledon twice, the Australian Open four times, the French Open once and was runner-up for four consecutive years at the US Open. She won seven Grand Slam doubles titles and was ranked world No. 1 in 1976. 

In 1980 she became the first mother to win Wimbledon since Dorothy Lambert Chambers in 1914.

This Is Your Life honours Australian tennis champion, John Newcombe.

In this clip, host Roger Climpson introduces two other tennis greats who pay tribute to Newcombe, Australian Ken Rosewall and American Jimmy Connors.

Rosewall reached a record 35 major finals, winning 23 including 8 Grand Slam singles titles. Newcombe and Connors were keen rivals but only faced off against each other in one Grand Slam final, the Australian Open in 1975.

Newcombe is the rare player to have been ranked No. 1 in the world in singles and doubles. He won Wimbledon three times and the US Championships / Open twice, and was hugely successful in doubles with partner Tony Roche. Overall he won 26 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

This short newsreel clip marks the return of the 'Rockhampton Rocket', world No. 1 tennis player Rod Laver, to Brisbane in 1962.

Laver was the world No.1 amateur player from 1961–62 and the No. 1 professional player from 1964–70 when he won 10 or more titles every year for seven consecutive years.

He won Wimbledon four times and the Grand Slam twice, in 1962 and 1969. His 200 singles titles is the most in tennis history, making him one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

The home of the Australian Open in Melbourne was renamed the Rod Laver Arena in his honour, in 2000.

This footage from the Nine Network shows the first set of the 1970 Women's Singles Championship match between Australia's Margaret Court and American tennis star, Billie Jean King.

Court won the match in straight sets, 14-12 and 11-9. This was before the introduction of tie-breakers to decide sets. Court’s victory was her third Wimbledon title and her third Grand Slam win of the year.

Court amassed more major titles than any other player in tennis history with 192 singles titles, including 24 Grand Slam titles. She is the only player in tennis history to complete a multiple Grand Slam set, twice, in all three disciplines: singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Court was dubbed the 'Aussie Amazon' because of her rigorous exercise routine.

American Billie Jean King was a world No.1 tennis player with 39 Grand Slam victories in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, including six single Wimbledon titles. She is also known for defeating Bobby Riggs in a much-hyped exhibition match dubbed 'The Battle of the Sexes' in September 1973.

Earlier in the same year, Riggs had easily defeated Margaret Court in a similar exhibition game which became known as the 'Mother's Day Massacre'.

In this newsreel Ken Rosewall returns home after Australia's Davis Cup success, defeating defending champions the United States.

With the huge sums of money earned by tennis players today, it seems odd to hear the narrator say that the 'big question' is whether Rosewall will turn professional. But this was at a time when international tennis was largely an amateur sport

Overall, Rosewall reached a record 35 major finals, winning 23, including 8 Grand Slam singles titles. 

Rosewall was renowned for his backhand, which he played one-handed with a dangerous back spin, considered by some as one of the best in the history of the game.

Lleyton Hewitt's victory over Argentina's David Nalbandian was the first time an Australian had won the men's singles at Wimbledon in 15 years. 

This segment from Sky News Australia focuses mostly on the match itself, which was a good decision. It allows the audience to revel in Hewitt's masterful display of skill and enjoy the dominance he showed against his opponent.

An amusing addition is the moment when a streaker runs onto the court and we see the reaction from members of the Royal Family. The inclusion of a short interview with Hewitt at the end gives a satisfying context to what the win means for young tennis players.

This clip is from Bicentennial Minutes, a series of 60-second snapshots of Australian history produced in 1988 to mark 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney in 1788.

This episode features Australian tennis great Norman Brookes who won the Davis Cup for Australia in 1907. He was part of the Australasian Davis Cup team that won the title on six occasions and is considered to have been the world No.1 player in the 1900s.

Known as ‘The Wizard’, and always attired in long sleeves and cloth cap, Brookes’ controlled speed in ground shots and aggressive net attack took him to the top of international tennis. He was the first non-British player to win the Wimbledon singles and doubles titles in 1907 and again in 1914 (he was runner-up in the singles in 1905 and 1919).

After his active playing career Brookes became president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia and was knighted in 1939.

This Bicentennial Minutes clip is a wonderful example of the use of archival footage to tell a compelling story. At just a minute in length, this clip offers an effective vignette of the career of one of Australia's tennis pioneers. Peter Luck's narration is concise and engaging.

This newsreel features footage of Australian players Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall – dubbed here 'the tennis twins' – at the 1962 Davis Cup.

The first Davis Cup took place in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900 between the United States and Britain. Australian players started to compete in 1905.

Australia and the US have an intense rivalry in Davis Cup history and Hoad and Rosewall are each seen facing off against American competitors in this clip.

This short news item is about bronze busts of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde going on display in Garden Square, Melbourne Park after the players were inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.

Nicknamed 'The Woodies', they formed one of the most successful doubles partnerships in tennis history.

Together they won 11 Grand Slam titles including the French Open, two Australian and US Opens, and a record six Wimbledon championships.

Host Roger Climpson honours Frank Sedgman on an episode of This Is Your Life in 1979. This clip includes an appearance by his wife Jean and footage of his winning Wimbledon in 1952.

From 1948 to 1952 Frank Sedgman won 22 major titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. With his doubles partner Ken McGregor, he won all four majors in 1951 and only just missed repeating the achievement in 1952 when they won the Australian, French and Wimbledon championships but were runners-up in the US.

His success came during a time when tennis was becoming a professional sport, splitting from the amateur circuit. The ‘special wedding present’ referred to in this clip was a fundraising drive led by Harry Hopman to keep Sedgman as an amateur. Sedgman retained his amateur status for only another year, deciding to turn professional in 1953.

National Nine News reports on Pat Rafter's loss to Goran Ivanišević at the Wimbledon final in 2001.

This news segment is a good example of telling an engaging story in under two minutes. Surprisingly very little of the match itself is shown – less than five seconds – in place of the reactions of fans, family and even Prime Minister John Howard. We also see people celebrating in Croatia the victory of Ivanišević.

The clip effectively highlights how the Wimbledon competition resonates on a national level, as well as internationally.

This clip by the Australian News and Information Bureau shows young Australians being coached and competing to become the tennis stars of tomorrow.

James Outram Anderson, winner of three Australian championships and a Wimbledon doubles title, demonstrates how to grip the racquet.

A young Ken Rosewall is seen playing Frank Sedgman.

This National Film Board episode of Australian Diary was made not long after Australia regained the Davis Cup in 1950.

At that time the team played with Australian-made tennis racquets, which were also exported to countries like the US and South Africa. 

This clip shows how the racquets were made and features Ken McGregor, who was part of the winning Davis Cup teams in 1950, 1951 and 1952.

The Australian Commonwealth Film Unit made several short public service films using sporting stars to promote road safety. This clip has tennis great Harry Hopman warning people to stay focused when driving.

Hopman was the successful captain-coach of 22 Australian Davis Cup teams from 1939 to 1967. He worked with many of the greatest names in Australian men's tennis and his legacy is recognised in the Hopman Cup, an annual international hardcourt tennis tournament held in Perth.

This newsreel segment from 1933 profiles Australian Jack Crawford, the world No. 1 men’s tennis player that year.

He won the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon but fell short of being the first player to win the Grand Slam when he was beaten by Fred Perry in five sets at the US Championships. American Don Budge accomplished the feat for the first time in 1938.

Crawford’s game may not have been as fast or powerful as other players, but he successfully relied on technical skill and accuracy with excellent anticipation of his opponent’s strokes. He was also known for taking shots of whisky in breaks during particularly tense matches.

This newsreel shows Australian Davis Cup tennis player Rod Laver, the 'Rockhampton Rocket', demonstrating his winning style. Despite the lack of sound, we can still appreciate Laver's timing and power.

Laver focused on developing his serve and volley game, with aggressive ground strokes, and has been described by some commentators as 'technically faultless'. Close-up shots show his grip on the racquet and his forehand and backhand strokes.

The footage also shows Laver playing against Italy's Nicola Pietrangeli in the 1961 Davis Cup Challenge Round at Kooyong Stadium, Melbourne and partnering with Neale Fraser in a doubles match against Nicola Pietrangeli and Orlando Sirola. The Australian team won the cup five rubbers to nil and are shown with the winning trophy.

Please note this clip is silent. The NFSA holds the picture negative only for this newsreel rather than the final version, with voice-over narration, that would have screened in cinemas at the time.

This 1968 Australian Diary film asks, 'Is the Australian interest in tennis falling off?'. With audiences at matches decreasing, has Australia's dominance in the sport finally ended?

Special tennis camps for children and young people aim to nurture the talents of future champions. Footage of young girls marching and training in regimented lines at tennis camps is juxtaposed with images of trail-bike riding and rugby union to highlight the competing interests for young people from other sports and activities.

The footage also includes shots of tennis courts for sale or in disrepair but ends by highlighting the social and community aspects of tennis with the hope that the game will still be an important part of Australia's future.

This newsreel clip shows Junior Hardcourt Champion Tony Roche in a practice game with professional champion Lew Hoad.

Roche went on to make the Wimbledon final once, in 1968, where he was defeated by fellow Australian Rod Laver in straight sets. Roche won a Grand Slam singles title – the French Championship in 1966 – but was runner-up at Grand Slam events five times.

He was an accomplished doubles player, with 13 Grand Slam titles, mostly paired with John Newcombe. After retirement as a player, Roche had a very successful coaching career working with Ivan Lendl, Pat Rafter, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt.

Lew Hoad, also seen in this clip, won four Grand Slam singles titles (including twice at Wimbledon) and had a string of titles as a doubles player. 

Please note this clip is silent. The NFSA holds the picture negative only for this newsreel rather than the final version, with voice-over narration, that would have screened in cinemas at the time.

Players wear roller skates in a mixed doubles tennis match played in Melbourne in this newsreel clip from 1940.

Please note this clip is silent. The NFSA holds the picture negative only for this newsreel rather than the final version, with voice-over narration, that would have screened in cinemas at the time.