Junior years

Cash came to the tennis world's attention as a prominent and promising junior player in the early 1980s. He was awarded a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport. He was ranked the No. 1 junior player in the world in 1981.

In June 1982, Cash won the junior doubles title at the French Open partnering John Frawley. In July he won the junior singles title at Wimbledon, and while partnering Frawley, he also won the junior doubles title at the same tournament. In September, he won the junior singles title at the US Open, and while partnering Frawley, he was also the runner-up of the junior doubles at the same tournament.

Professional years

Cash turned professional in late 1982 and won his first top-level singles title that year in Melbourne.

In 1983, Cash became the youngest player to play in a Davis Cup final. He won the decisive singles rubber against Joakim Nyström as Australia defeated Sweden 3–2 to claim the cup.^[4]

In 1984, Cash reached the singles semifinals at both Wimbledon and the US Open. He lost in three sets in the Wimbledon semifinals to John McEnroe and was defeated in the semifinals at the US Open by Ivan Lendl, who won their match in a fifth-set tiebreaker. This day is regarded as one of the greatest days in US Open history because it featured the three set thriller women's final Chris Evert vs Martina Navratilova and a John McEnroe vs Jimmy Connors five set marathon semifinal – creating the day now known as 'Super Saturday'. Cash finished the year in top 10 for the first time.

Cash was the runner-up in the doubles competition at Wimbledon in both 1984 with Paul McNamee and 1985 with John Fitzgerald.

In 1986, he helped Australia regain the Davis Cup with a 3–2 victory over Sweden. Cash again won the decisive singles rubber, recovering from two sets down against Mikael Pernfors. Just prior to Wimbledon in 1986, Cash had an emergency appendix operation. He reached the quarterfinals of the competition, and during the championship he started the now common tradition of throwing wristbands and headbands into the crowd.

1987 was a particularly strong year for Cash. He reached five singles finals, of which two were Grand Slam finals. Cash reached his first Grand Slam singles final at the Australian Open, where he lost in five sets to Stefan Edberg. This was the last Australian Open played at Kooyong on a grass court. The crowning moment of Cash's career came in 1987 at Wimbledon. Having already beaten Marcel Freeman, Paul McNamee, Michiel Schapers, Guy Forget, Mats Wilander in the quarterfinals and Jimmy Connors in the semifinals, Cash defeated the world No. 1, Ivan Lendl, in the final in straight sets. Cash sealed the victory by climbing into the stands and up to the player's box at Centre Court, where he celebrated with his family, girlfriend, and coach, Ian Barclay. He thus started a Wimbledon tradition that has been followed by many other champions at Wimbledon and other Grand Slam tournaments since. He only dropped one set during the entire tournament.^[5][6] He finished the year ranked at No. 7.

In 1988, Cash reached the Australian Open final for the second consecutive year and faced another Swede, Mats Wilander. It was the first men's singles final played at the new Melbourne Park venue on hard court, and Wilander won in a four-and-a-half-hour encounter, taking the fifth set 8–6. It was the first Grand Slam final in history to be played indoors after rain delays forced the closing of the roof midway through the match.^[7][8] Cash also reached his career-high ranking of world No. 4 in May.

Coming in as the defending champion in 1988 at Wimbledon, Cash was seeded fourth and only dropped two sets (both during the second round) en route to quarterfinal, but his run came to an end when he lost to sixth seed and eventual runner-up Boris Becker. It was the last time he reached the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament in singles. 1988 was the last time Cash ended the year in the top 20, finishing the year ranked 20th, after having been ranked inside the top 10 from the start of the year until 21 November.

In April 1989, Cash ruptured his Achilles tendon at the Japan Open and was out of action until March 1990.^[9]

Cash played in his third Davis Cup final in 1990. This time, Australia lost 2–3 to the United States.

Cash continued to play on the circuit on-and-off through the mid-1990s. A series of consecutive injuries to his Achilles tendon, knees, and back prevented him from recapturing his best form after winning Wimbledon in 1987. He won his last top-level singles title in April 1990 at the Hong Kong Open.^[9] His last doubles title came in 1996 at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships with Pat Rafter.

Cash established a reputation on the tour as a hard-fighting serve-and-volleyer and for wearing his trademark black-and-white checked headband and his cross earring.^[10] For most of his career, Cash was coached by Melbourne-born tennis coach Ian Barclay.

Post-retirement

Cash in 2010

Since his retirement from the tour in 1997, Cash has resided mainly in London. He is the host of CNN's tennis-focused magazine show Open Court,^[11] and has also worked as a TV co-commentator, primarily for the BBC. Cash continues to be a draw card on both the ATP and Champions Cup legends tours. He won the Hall of Fame event in Newport Rhode Island in 2008 and 2009. He has coached top players including Greg Rusedski and Mark Philippoussis.

Cash opened a tennis academy on the Gold Coast of Australia and is also opening academies in Ko Samui, Thailand and in the Caribbean St Vincent, St Lucia and Dominican Republic.

Cash was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2005.^[12]

Cash won the over-45s Wimbledon doubles title with fellow Australian Mark Woodforde in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. In November 2014, he played in the inaugural Champions Tennis League in India.

In 2022, Cash appeared on the third British series of The Masked Singer masked as "Bagpipes". He was fourth to be unmasked.^[13]

Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1987	Australian Open	Grass	Stefan Edberg	3–6, 4–6, 6–3, 7–5, 3–6
Win	1987	Wimbledon	Grass	Ivan Lendl	7–6(7–5), 6–2, 7–5
Loss	1988	Australian Open	Hard	Mats Wilander	3–6, 7–6(7–3), 6–3, 1–6, 6–8

Doubles (2 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1984	Wimbledon	Grass	Paul McNamee	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	2–6, 7–5, 2–6, 6–3, 3–6
Loss	1985	Wimbledon	Grass	John Fitzgerald	Heinz Günthardt Balázs Taróczy	4–6, 3–6, 6–4, 3–6

Singles: 11 (6 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Result	W-L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Dec 1982	Melbourne Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Rod Frawley	6–4, 7–6
Win	2–0	Oct 1983	Brisbane, Australia	Carpet (i)	Paul McNamee	4–6, 6–4, 6–3
Loss	2–1	Oct 1984	Melbourne Indoor, Australia	Carpet (i)	Matt Mitchell	4–6, 6–3, 2–6
Loss	2–2	Jan 1987	Australian Open, Melbourne	Grass	Stefan Edberg	3–6, 4–6, 6–3, 7–5, 3–6
Win	3–2	Mar 1987	Lorraine Open, France	Carpet (i)	Wally Masur	6–2, 6–3
Win	4–2	Jun 1987	Wimbledon	Grass	Ivan Lendl	7–6(7–5), 6–2, 7–5
Loss	4–3	Oct 1987	Australian Indoor Championships	Hard (i)	Ivan Lendl	4–6, 2–6, 4–6
Win	5–3	Nov 1987	South African Open	Hard (i)	Brad Gilbert	7–6(9–7), 4–6, 2–6, 6–0, 6–1
Loss	5–4	Jan 1988	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Mats Wilander	3–6, 7–6(7–3), 6–3, 1–6, 6–8
Loss	5–5	Apr 1990	Seoul Open, South Korea	Hard	Alex Antonitsch	6–7(2–7), 3–6
Win	6–5	Apr 1990	Hong Kong	Hard	Alex Antonitsch	6–3, 6–4

Doubles (11 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Result	W-L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Dec 1982	Adelaide, Australia	Grass	Chris Johnstone	Broderick Dyke Wayne Hampson	6–3, 6–7, 7–6
Loss	1–1	Jun 1985	London/Queen's Club, UK	Grass	John Fitzgerald	Ken Flach Robert Seguso	6–3, 3–6, 14–16
Loss	1–2	Jul 1985	Wimbledon, London	Grass	John Fitzgerald	Heinz Günthardt Balázs Taróczy	4–6, 3–6, 6–4, 3–6
Win	2–2	Oct 1983	Brisbane, Australia	Carpet	Paul McNamee	Mark Edmondson Kim Warwick	7–6, 7–6
Win	3–2	Dec 1983	Sydney, Australia	Grass	Mike Bauer	Broderick Dyke Rod Frawley	7–6, 6–4
Win	4–2	Apr 1984	Houston, US	Clay	Paul McNamee	David Dowlen Nduka Odizor	7–5, 4–6, 6–3
Win	5–2	Apr 1984	Aix-en-Provence, France	Clay	Paul McNamee	Chris Lewis Wally Masur	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
Win	6–2	Jun 1984	London/Queen's Club, UK	Grass	Paul McNamee	Bernard Mitton Butch Walts	6–4, 6–3
Loss	6–3	Jul 1984	Wimbledon, London	Grass	Paul McNamee	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	2–6, 7–5, 2–6, 6–3, 3–6
Win	7–3	May 1985	Las Vegas, US	Hard	John Fitzgerald	Paul Annacone Christo van Rensburg	7–6, 6–7, 7–6
Loss	7–4	Nov 1986	Hong Kong, Hong Kong	Hard	Mark Kratzmann	Mike De Palmer Gary Donnelly	6–7, 7–6, 5–7
Loss	7–5	Nov 1986	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Slobodan Živojinović	Sherwood Stewart Kim Warwick	4–6, 4–6
Win	8–5	Aug 1987	Montreal, Canada	Hard	Stefan Edberg	Peter Doohan Laurie Warder	6–7, 6–3, 6–4
Win	9–5	Jan 1990	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Mark Kratzmann	Pieter Aldrich Danie Visser	6–4, 7–5
Win	10–5	Apr 1990	Hong Kong, Hong Kong	Hard	Wally Masur	Kevin Curren Joey Rive	6–3, 6–3
Loss	10–6	Apr 1996	Bermuda	Clay	Pat Rafter	Jan Apell Brent Haygarth	6–3, 1–6, 3–6
Win	11–6	May 1996	Pinehurst, US	Clay	Pat Rafter	Ken Flach David Wheaton	6–2, 6–3

Boys' singles: 3 (2–1)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1981	Wimbledon Jrs.	Grass	Matt Anger	6–7(3–7), 5–7
Win	1982	Wimbledon Jrs.	Grass	Henrik Sundström	6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–3
Win	1982	US Open Jrs.	Hard	Guy Forget	6–3, 6–3

Singles

Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses.