Illustration by Cathy Wilcox.

llustration: Cathy Wilcox

I'VE JUST spent four days in the US, which coincided with Samantha Stosur winning the US Open. The battle for global recognition is hot, especially in New York where the locals think the world stops at the Hudson River.

The headlines after the first Australian woman to win the title since Margaret Court 37 years ago said it all: ''Serena Loses Out.''

And we all saw Serena Williams spit the dummy at the umpire at the beginning of the second set in a style that John McEnroe would have applauded. But she wasn't worried that she couldn't remember what she said. As she observed, she could watch it later on YouTube.

It's understandable that the headline would be about the American loser rather than the Aussie winner, but it does still underline that great Australian talent sometimes has to battle for worldwide recognition.

It's great that Australian tennis is on the way back, with record crowds of more than 600,000 at the Australian Open this year. It will be big ratings for the Seven Network's Australian Open coverage in 2012.

Australians are doing well in this changing world as the weekend in sport showed. The US is not always on top. Williams is a star and will go on winning and deservedly so. And hopefully she will be back for the Australian Open next year.

But this is a changing world where the US does not always win. As Fareed Zakaria says in his New York Times bestseller The Post-American World, ''this is not about the decline of America, it's about the rise of the rest''.

He goes on: ''The tallest building is now in Dubai. The world's richest man is Mexican, and its biggest public corporation is Chinese. The world's biggest plane is built in Russia, its leading refinery is in India and its largest factories are in China. Hong Kong now rivals London and New York as the leading financial centre … it's striking that 20 years ago America was on top in many, if not most, of these categories.''

And he might have added that the world's largest mining company is in Australia. With only 1.5 per cent of the world's population we have created one of the world's top-10 economies.

''Not bad for a country with a population not that much bigger than the Big Apple,'' says Charlie.

Kevin Rudd was right to insist that we be at the table of the so-called G20. And in advertising we have the highest per capita spend in the world, with an advertising industry as big as France, a nation three times our size. Our people are being exported around the world and are making a difference globally.

Last week I had lunch with one of the forerunners - former World Bank head James Wolfensohn, who continues to have a major impact internationally.

A recent example is Henley homes - an outstanding Australian company. A couple of years ago, Japan's Sumitomo Forestry took a 50 per cent interest. It was looking for the expertise that Henley could offer, as well as a foothold elsewhere in the world. So now Henley people are travelling to the US and Asia marketing homes on behalf of the company. They take Australian marketing people with them and they do it better than anyone else in the world.

And this is the story of Samantha Stosur. I'm pleased to say that it's also the case for our advertising people.

Harold Mitchell is the executive chairman of Mitchell Communication Group.