Australian tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley said Friday she was ecstatic to be honoured with what is billed as the world's biggest tennis racquet by the tiny town which launched her career. The wheat town of Barellan, some 450 kilometres (279 miles) west of Sydney, said this week it would install the steel racquet on an imitation grass court in time for its centenary celebrations next year.
The 13.8-metre long steel racquet, which will perch at a 45 degree angle to the ground, will be a replica of the wooden Dunlop racquet the former No 1 used at the height of her success in the 1970s.
Goolagong Cawley said without the support Barellan townspeople gave her as a young Aboriginal girl - including driving her to distant tournaments - she may never have become a professional tennis player. "They paid for my trips to Sydney, another lady made some tennis dresses for me," she told AFP from her home in Noosa, north of Brisbane.
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