by Stephen Vagg

Inspired by the new documentary Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, here are ten Aussie tennis biopics that this country needs to make.

The closing night film for BIFF, Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story is a documentary about the turbulent personal life of the Australian tennis champion. It’s a story that cries out for drama treatment as well. Indeed, a lot of tennis stories would make terrific dramatic feature films – we are a country rich in tennis history – but for some reason we steer clear of them (with the odd exception, eg. The Beautiful Lie, James Reyne in Return to Eden).

Producers take note!

1) When Leyton Met Becs

Genre: rom com.

Pitch: She’s the nation’s sweetheart, beloved star of the country’s biggest soap opera and an aspiring pop singer. He’s a popular tennis champ, who makes the most of his talent and endorses toilet paper with his mum, and is coming off a relationship with a Belgian tennis superstar. When they get together, sparks fly – but the Australian sporting public is grumpy because TBH they’d rather he was still dating the Belgian and producing the next generation of super tennis players. Somehow, they manage to stay together and make it work, leading to one of the most famous poems in Australian history and far too many articles in New Idea. A movie that writes itself, really.  Bec could play herself! (we are not joking about that, by the way, she still looks terrific.)

2) When Delta Met Mark P.

Genre: rom com or dark comedy

Pitch: She’s the nation’s sweetheart, beloved star of the country’s biggest soap opera and a successful pop singer. He’s an occasionally popular tennis champ, who doesn’t make the most of his talent, coming off a relationship with the star of American Pie (and future star of Taradise). When they get together, sparks fly – but then she’s diagnosed with cancer. He stands by her and inspires rather racy lyrics on her second album. True love triumphs… until he cheats on her with Paris Hilton and they break up and then she’s accused of breaking up another singer’s marriage and then he hooks up with that girl from Spin City and stars in a reality show and it turns out that his dad is a… Look, if you ended the story at a specific moment, it’s a great love story. If you kept it going, it’s a little more twisted. Delta could play herself!

3) The Ash Barty Story

Genre: inspirational sports movie

Pitch: The story of a First Nations child prodigy who becomes a teen tennis star, then burns out, and drops out, only to rediscover her love of sport by… playing cricket for the Brisbane Heat. Does that for a bit. Returns to tennis, kicks arse, retires with dignity. This would make a great upbeat buddy sports comedy, throwing in a romance with a golfer.

4) The Evonne Goolagong Cawley Story

Genre: inspirational sports movie

Pitch: The story of a bush kid from Barellan, a shearer’s daughter with blinding talent, who was black and would hide under the bed every time a fancy car drove near her family home out of fear the government would take her away. Moves to Sydney and has complex relationship with a coach who builds up her game/lusts after her/resents her success. She wins Grand Slams by 19, plays in apartheid South Africa, is refused entry to nightclubs because of her skin colour, is the subject of countless racist articles and attitudes, becomes the first mother to win Wimbledon and be a KFC spokesperson… Why hasn’t this story been filmed? Actually, it’s been in development for years. The Vic Edwards part is a guaranteed award winner.

5) The Brad Drewett Story

Genre: guy cry movie (NB warning, this story is genuinely tragic)

Pitch: Drewett was a teen superstar, winning the Australian Open junior championship and making the quarters of the Australian Open before he was eighteen. Australia goes berserk, dreaming of a new champion (it was the 1970s and we were panicking that the days of the 1960s would never come back, which turned out to be the case). He never fulfils his promise as a player, often invoked as a cautionary tale (“it all went to his head”, “too silly”, “too much money too soon”… all the 1980s equivalents of “kids are on their phones too much these days”). Then he has a great second act, becoming an excellent commentator and hugely successful executive at ATP, eventually running the whole operation… until cruelly brought down by motor neurone disease. (A disease which also took the life of fellow tennis player Peter Doohan). In all seriousness, this could be a powerful moving tale along the lines of The Pride of the Yankees with award noms guaranteed for whoever plays the title role.

6) The Peter Carter Story

Genre: guy cry movie.

Pitch: A tennis player from the country, who never really hit the top rank (literally, his highest ranking was 173) but became a first rate coach, particularly helping shape the career of bratty Swiss kid Roger Federer. Carter gets married to Sylvia, who is diagnosed with cancer. She gets the all-clear, they go on a belated honeymoon in South Africa – where Carter is killed in a car accident. Federer, now completely un-bratty, goes on to become one of the greatest players in history, but never forgets his one-time Aussie coach, regularly inviting Carter’s parents to tournaments.

7) The David Hall Story

Genre: inspirational sports movie.

Pitch: Country kid loses his legs when sixteen years old after being hit by a car while hitchhiking. Gets inspired to play wheelchair tennis after seeing a picture of Terry Mason. Mason mentors him and Hall becomes the first foreign player to win the Men’s Singles at the US Open, and the first ever Australian to reach World Number 1. Guaranteed awards for whoever plays Mason and Hall.

8) [trigger warning] The Margaret Court Story

Genre: Christian-faith drama

Pitch: The story of a woman who wins a lot of tennis games… then wins a lot more… and then more than anyone else… but everyone still prefers Evonne Goolagong Cawley. She finds God, leads the fight to champion homophobia against the evil forces of tolerance. Twist the facts, make it about “freedom of speech” and it’s a natural for one of those Christian film studios who make movies aimed at red state audiences like God’s Not Dead, I Can Only Imagine and The Least of These: The Graham Staines Story (starring Stephen Baldwin as an Australian missionary). There’s a bunch of actors who’d be natural to star in this – Kirsty Swanson, Candace Bure, Kirk Cameron. We are not saying that the film wouldn’t be awful, but there would be a market for it.

9) The Nancye Wynne Bolton Story

Genre: romance/inspirational sport movie.

Pitch: Nancye was a champion tennis player in the 1930s. During WW2, she fell in love with RAAF pilot George Bolton. They married, had a kid, and George was killed flying over Germany. Nancye struggled through as a single mum, returned to competitive tennis after the war and won tournaments again, becoming a world champion. Great drama. She should be better known.

10) Conspiracy: The Pat Cash Story

Genre: conspiracy thriller for anti-vax market.

Pitch: The saga of a plucky kid who wins the nation’s heart through some terrific performances, particularly beating Mikael Pernfors in the Davis Cup, wins Wimbledon but never quite becomes as good as we think he’s going to be, then sort of loses his way, parties a lot, takes heaps of cocaine, is fifty percent sure he slept with Rebecca Loos… then discovers the Truth! That the Government are leading a conspiracy to control our lives!!! They’re going to lock down cities! COVID-19 was created by an American doctor and the wealthy! Be informed – make up your own mind! Only he and his trusty friends like Pete Evans and Kelly Slater know the real agenda! The Truth is Out there! Make it The X-Files meets Wimbledon, and market it to the Anti-Vaxxers. Ideal vehicle for Kevin Sorbo.

Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story is in cinemas from 7 November 2024

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