John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In celebrating Sam Stosur winning the US Open today, we are celebrating not just a remarkable sporting achievement but also a triumph of the great Australian character. Serena and Venus Williams have dominated the women's game over the past 10 years to a greater extent than any other two players have dominated this sport. The Williams sisters have taken the game from what was previously considered a country club sport in the US and ended forever the racial barriers that Arthur Ashe and the first great African-American player, Althea Gibson, initially confronted. Sam's victory today is a study in the value of competition in the development of her game and her character.

In 2005 I travelled extensively with Sam in my role as the Fed Cup captain. In the lead-up to Wimbledon that year, Sam lost to the defending champion Maria Sharapova in a magnificent three-set match that could have gone either way. On this form, I commented that Sam could win Wimbledon one day. This was dismissed by many as an exaltation of an overenthusiastic coach. Sam was injured the following day and her preparation for Wimbledon was greatly impaired, and she lost in the first round. Our team had a chant of inquiring, 'What time is it?' and, regardless of the circumstances, the answer had to be, 'The best time of my life.'

At the US Open, Sam again met with the ultimate disappointment, losing in the first round to an opponent she had every right to expect to beat. At the end of the long walk back to the locker room, I asked Sam, 'What time is it?' Clearly upset but with her humour still intact, she replied, 'Not the best time of my life.' Some 10 days later Sam played magnificently to win the US Open doubles with Lisa Raymond and then achieve the world's No. 1 ranking in doubles. The scrutiny of competition has not always been kind. However, the one constant in Sam Stosur's rise has been her steadfast commitment to take each setback as her coach to build a better game and stronger character. Today she entered a stadium in New York named after the greatest African-American male player the world has seen, Arthur Ashe, a man of character, and was drawn to play the greatest player of her era, Serena Williams, at a time when women's tennis has gone from strength to strength. To add to the drama, it was the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City. The weight of history pressed down hard upon her as the first Australian woman to make the US Open final since the golden days of Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong—who is in the building right now—Wendy Turnbull and Kerry Reid in the seventies. Under these extraordinary conditions, facing the greatest challenge of her tennis career and test of her character, the sum total of her accumulated knowledge through defeat and with her character intact, her day had come. The beauty of this story is that every Australian would recognise, Sam, that your success is earned and that you remain the same modest, almost shy, young woman who has achieved greatness. All Australians would agree, Sam, that this is the time of your life. (Time expired)