Roy Stanley Emerson was born on 3 November 1936 in Blackbutt, a small town in Queensland, Australia. He grew up as a slim, quick farm boy who strengthened his wrists for tennis by milking countless cows on his father's property. He played the amateur circuit from 1951 and, in the great years of Australian dominance, nobody played a larger part than he did.
Under the Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman he played on eight winning Davis Cup teams between 1959 and 1967, a record, and he played the deciding match in singles or doubles six times. His Davis Cup record was 21–2 in singles and 13–2 in doubles. Fitness was his hallmark.
In singles he won six Australian titles, in 1961 and from 1963 to 1967, two French titles, in 1963 and 1967, two Wimbledon titles, in 1964 and 1965, and two US titles, in 1961 and 1964. Those 12 major singles titles made him the first man to reach that number, and they stood as the men's record until Pete Sampras passed it in 2000. In doubles he won 16 major titles with five different partners, the last of them at Wimbledon in 1971 with Rod Laver. His 28 major titles remain the all-time record for a male player, and he won all ten major finals he played in a row, another record.
All of his major singles titles came before the Open Era began in 1968, the year he turned professional, so his best years were spent as an amateur. Counting amateur and professional events together, he won more than 100 singles titles. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1982.