It was a timely meeting for the leading women stars of their day on the eve of the Brisbane International - which begins Sunday - featuring Australian Sam Stosur and Russian Maria Sharapova as top seeds.

Fifty years ago, it was these five Queensland's golden girls – headed by Daphne Fancutt, the effervescent Wimbledon 1956 doubles finalist who tells better stories than the world's best scriptwriters - that gently opened the international doors for today's women tennis stars.

Fay Muller, who also won the Australian Championships 1957 mixed doubles with Mal Anderson; Madonna Schacht who played at Wimbledon in the early 1960s; and Fay Toyne who played 44 games at Wimbledon between 1964 and 1972 as well as French and Australian championships were among Queensland Tennis golden era of women's tennis players.

Daphne Fancutt – who partnered Fay Muller in that 1956 Wimbledon doubles final as Daphne Seeney - is Queensland deputy premier Jeff Seeney's aunt and the story-telling queen of the Queensland Tennis' Golden Girls.

Here is just one example of a dozen Daphne Fancutt stories that had everybody laughing on Saturday.

At one stage after appearing in the 1956 Wimbledon final Fancutt was invited to play in tournaments in Beirut, Istanbul and Athens.

Cutting a long story short, she explained arriving at Beirut airport and being driven to her accommodation high in a mountain range in the back of a truck.

With her in the back of the truck was her male host, who unfortunately had "wandering hands" and the young player's legs became the object of her host's attention.

"His hands started to go up my leg, so I just went 'wham' (demonstrating a hefty jolt to the man's nether regions)," she said.

"I wasn't big, but I had a good backhand," she said as laughter rained down.

Fay Muller was the first Queenslander selected in an Australian Women's tennis team in 1955.

Born in Brisbane, she grew up in Mooloola and with Daphne Fancutt became one of the Australia's best women's doubles partnerships.

They were called Queensland Tennis' Golden Girls because they were blondes, doubles partners, and "both bushies".

Fay Muller said the disappearance of the suburban backyard was changing the way young people came into contact with tennis at an early age.

"We always played tennis in a local backyard or on a local tennis court," she said.

"So you've got to get more girls playing tennis and the problem is that there are so many other sports that they can take up."

"Tennis has got to be put out there more, to give them the choice."

Fay Torne played nine Wimbledons and in 1968 got to the final 16 of the singles before losing to world number one Billie Jean King.

"In 1964 I hopped on a boat in the Brisbane River at Brett's Wharf and went to England," she said.

"And I stayed there mainly because I couldn't afford to come backwards and forwards and I wanted to play more on the big stage."

She won regional championships in England and France and competed throughout Europe.

"I think I got 90 pounds for getting to the last 16 at Wimbledon."

"It was very hard back then, but it was terrific experience."

Torne – who described Billie Jean King and Margaret Court as her role models - said role models "at the top of their game" was the important thing to attract a new generation of young people to tennis.

"It is okay to have courts and things, but you've got to have someone who will get young boys and young girls wanting to play tennis.

"And if you don't have a role model, you won't have young people wanting to aspire to do that."

Madonna Schacht came from Gympie, was selected in the Harry Hopman squad and came to Brisbane.

"It was there that I linked up with people like Rod Laver – I was in prestigious company – Kenny Fletcher and Frank Gorman," Ms Schacht said.

"And that launched my career. And as Fay and Daphne were telling you in the early 1950s the Australian Lawn Tennis Association never sent any women abroad."

In 1962 Schacht was selected in the Australian Women's Tennis Team that toured England, America and Europe.

That team included many other young women who were among the first international women tennis players, groomed by legendary tennis coach Harry Hopman.

"There was Jan Lehane, Robyn Ebbern – who lived near the Milton Tennis Courts - and Leslie Turner," she said.

She remembers playing a match on Wimbledon's centre court against the world's number one, South American Maria Bueno.

"I got to the last 16 of Wimbledon. I would have been about 20."

Schacht remembered she had to wait for 90 minutes in a small waiting room with her opponent before that centre-court game.

"You had to sit and wait in that waiting room until the match on centre court finished," she said.

"And Maria Bueno was just blowing her stack. But it didn't affect her demeanour when she went out onto the court. It just made me more and more nervous."

Queensland tennis legends Roy Emerson and Rod Laver will be at events this Thursday and Friday when the new Roy Emerson Tennis Centre at Milton and the Rod Laver Footbridge at Yeerongpilly will be dedicated.