55 years ago, after his first date with Angelika Pfannenburg, nineteen year-old John Newcombe woke his hotel room-mate to say he’d just been out with the girl he would marry. As it turned out, he was right.
‘She had to sacrifice a lot for me … trying to be the best tennis player I could become’, Newcombe reflected of his marriage to Pfannenburg. Partly influenced by her unstable childhood in war-torn Germany, Angelika put her own blossoming tennis career on hold to ensure that stability was central in the upbringing of the pair’s three children, while John worked to become one of the most successful players of his era, winning seven grand slam singles titles. This portrait is evidence of the shifting style of photographer Lewis Morley in the 1970s, with the intimate glimpse into Australian family life a contrast to his portraits of celebrity high-life in 1960s London.
