Neither winning nor losing means as much to me as knowing the crowd has enjoyed my match. Some players feel that winning is everything and that losing is a disaster. Not me. I want the spectators to take home a good memory.

It's something I've always wanted - to be known as an Australian. When I was younger I was always referred to as an Aboriginal tennis player. Now I think the award means that I have been recognised as an entertainer and that makes me happy... It's given me probably as big a kick as winning Wimbledon.

I'm sure many people who discover they are destined to be athletes before they know what kind, go through a period of revelation... when they realise instinctively that this is their game... I think I realised that those first couple of summers in Barellan when the War Memorial Tennis Club became my playground.