Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 30 May 2025 | Matt Trollope

This is the fifth piece in our five-part series analysing Australian tennis on clay; check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here.

As tennis transitioned to the professional era in the last 1960s, Australian stars were winning big on clay.

Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver met in back-to-back all-Aussie Roland Garros finals in 1968 and 1969, while three Australian women – Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong and Helen Gourlay – appeared in Roland Garros finals in a fruitful five-year span from 1969 to 1973.

What followed was a comparatively lean period for Australians on clay at the highest level, until the emergence of Pat Rafter, Mark Philippoussis and Lleyton Hewitt in the late 1990s.

And it’s here we begin our countdown of the 10 best Aussie moments on clay in the past 30 years.

1. Rafter reaches 1997 Roland Garros semifinals

This result came somewhat out of the blue, given Rafter’s penchant for faster surfaces.

The Queenslander went on to win the first of two US Open titles later that year and was also a two-time Wimbledon finalist.

But his first truly deep run at a major came at Roland Garros in 1997, where he was one of three Aussies – along with Marks Woodforde and Philippoussis – to reach the second week.

Rafter upset No.6 seed Richard Krajicek to set up an all-Australian fourth-round match with Woodforde, which he won in four sets. He then outplayed Spaniard Galo Blanco in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

Rafter was the first Australian man to progress to the singles semifinals in Paris in 20 years, after Phil Dent in 1977.

There he took the first set off Sergei Bruguera before fading to a four-set defeat against the two-time French champion.

2. Philippoussis clinches 1999 Davis Cup for Australia

On indoor clay in Nice, the Australian Davis Cup team scored a magnificent victory over hosts France to win the storied national team competition for the first time in 13 years.

And Philippoussis was the player who won both his singles rubbers and scored the winning point.

To get to the final, Australia beat Zimbabwe on indoor hard court, the United States on outdoor hard, and Russia at home on grass. But in the decider, they faced a team born and raised on clay who had the backing of a raucous French crowd.

Philippoussis won the opening rubber in straight sets over Sebastien Grosjean, before Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge put the Aussies 2-1 ahead with a come-from-behind victory in the doubles.

With the opportunity to win the tie, Philippoussis rose to the occasion, beating Cedric Pioline in four sets to give Australia an unassailable 3-1 lead.

3. Woodies complete career doubles Slam at 2000 Roland Garros

By 1995 Woodbridge and Woodforde had already won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open to put themselves three quarters of the way to a career Grand Slam.

By 1997 they’d already won five Wimbledons as a dominant doubles duo, but French success continued to elude them after they fell in the Roland Garros final that same year.

In 2000, seeded second, they finally captured the French title, beating fellow Aussie Sandon Stolle and his Dutch partner Paul Haarhuis 7-6(7) 6-4.

Not since John Fitzgerald in 1991 had an Australian man won the men’s doubles title in Paris, and the previous all-Australian duo to do it was Mark Edmondson and Kim Warwick in 1985.

4. Hewitt upsets Kuerten on home soil in 2001

In the 2001 Davis Cup World Group, Australia travelled to face Brazil in the quarterfinals, with the home team led by the great Gustavo Kuerten in his home town of Florianopolis.

Kuerten was a claycourt great already, having won the Roland Garros titles in both 1997 and 2000. About six weeks after this Davis Cup meeting, he would go on to win a third.

But Lleyton Hewitt, on his least-preferred surface against a player he’d yet to beat, put in one of the great Davis Cup performances against all odds.

With Australia leading 2-1, Hewitt lined up against Kuerten – who’d beaten Rafter in the opening singles rubber – and beat the Brazilian in straight sets.

“I feel almost speechless,” Hewitt said. “That’s the best I’ve ever hit the ball and to have beaten Guga in his backyard in straight sets in these conditions with 12,000 people booing you is an unbelievable feeling.”

5. Stosur wins Charleston, reaches Roland Garros final in 2010

Stosur’s game had shown enormous promise on clay with her run to the French semifinals in 2009, and it all came together the following year.

She won the then-biggest title of her career on the green clay courts of Charleston, thumping Vera Zvonareva in a 6-0 6-3 final she describes as one of her best ever performances.

And that momentum carried through to Paris, where Stosur upstaged four-time champion Justine Henin, then-world No.1 Serena Williams and former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic to reach her first major singles final.

She was the first Australian in a Roland Garros women’s singles final since Wendy Turnbull in 1979, and despite losing to Francesca Schiavone, Stosur finished her sparkling claycourt season with 20 wins from 23 matches.

6. All-Australian WTA Strasbourg final in 2017

Stosur features in our countdown again, this time for reaching the 2017 Strasbourg singles final where she came face-to-face with compatriot Daria Gavrilova.

It was the first time two Australian women had clashed in a tour-level claycourt final since 1982, and remains the most recent.

Stosur pipped Gavrilova in a compelling three-hour, three-set final to win her second title in the French city, her fourth on clay, and ninth overall.

Completing a brilliant week for Australia were Ash Barty and Casey Dellacqua, who won the women’s doubles title.

7. Barty breaks through for 2019 Roland Garros title

Two years later Barty scaled far greater heights on clay at Roland Garros.

Seeded eighth, she beat Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, Andrea Petkovic, Sofia Kenin, Madison Keys and Amanda Anisimova to reach her first major singles final, where she outplayed Marketa Vondrousova.

This made Barty the first Australian singles champion at Roland Garros since Margaret Court in 1973, and was the first of Barty’s three major singles titles – all of which came on different surfaces.

“This is just incredible. I never dreamt that I’d be sitting here with this trophy here at the French Open,” Barty said. “At the start of the year I was just worried about falling over [on clay]. And I can successfully say that we got to the end of the clay court season and I did not fall over once.”

8. Sharma beats Jabeur to win 2021 Charleston

Sharma showed promise on clay when she reached her first WTA singles final in Bogota in 2019.

Two years later, she went one better on the surface.

In the COVID-affected season in 2021, a second tournament was staged in Charleston at 250-level, the week after the traditional 500-level event.

Playing on the same green clay courts, Sharma – then ranked 165th – carved her way through the draw and dropped only one set en route to the final.

There awaited world No.27 and top seed Ons Jabeur, who dominated the first set before Sharma roared back to win 2-6 7-5 6-1 – her first career victory over a top-30 player.

“Two years ago in Bogota, when I was so close, the nerves got the better of me,” she told wtatennis.com. “This time, I was a lot more calm and just held my nerve really well.”

9. Ebden & Peers strike gold at Paris 2024 Olympics

Matt Ebden and John Peers had already won Grand Slam doubles titles with separate partners, proving their credentials.

But they were less well-tested as a team, having played only five events together, ever, before they combined in Paris. A first-round loss together on clay in Hamburg leading in was not ideal preparation, either.

Yet the experienced Aussies clicked at the tennis event staged at Roland Garros, winning four encounters in straight sets to arrive in the gold medal match.

And there, from a set and a break down against Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, they became the first Australian Olympic tennis gold medallists since the Woodies 28 years earlier at Atlanta 1996.

10. Aussie first in 2025 Monte Carlo quarterfinals

The European claycourt season began strongly for Australia when Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin charged into the Monte Carlo quarterfinals.

Popyrin beat 14th seed Frances Tiafoe and upset fourth seed Casper Ruud to reach the last eight, where he joined De Minaur, a 6-2 6-2 third-round winner over Daniil Medvedev.

It meant that for the first time since the ATP Masters tournament category was introduced in 1990, Australia had two singles quarterfinalists at the same Masters event on clay.

De Minaur went one better, trouncing Grigor Dimitrov 6-0 6-0 to become the first player into the Monte Carlo semifinals since John Alexander in 1979.