Image right: Daphne Akhurst 1925 Souvenir Lincoln Wheat Coin, USA. Courtesy Strathfield Local Studies
As the Australian Open wraps up for another year, we remember the career of Strathfield local, Daphne Akhurst who won her first Australian Women’s Singles Championship 100 years ago in 1925. Daphne went on to win another four singles titles at the Australian Championships as well as five doubles titles. This US 1925 Wheat Penny Insert Trade Card is a rare example of memorabilia celebrating her career. Daphne also featured on collectable cigarette cards.
Replica tobacco card featuring Daphne Akhurst. Courtesy Strathfield Local Studies
Not only was Daphne Akhurst a champion tennis player, but she had also excelled as a pianist in her youth. In tennis she was known for being both tenacious and unassuming. After competing at Wimbledon in 1928, the British press called her the ‘shy lady of Wimbledon.’[1]
In February 1930 Daphne married Royston Cozens. Sadly, Daphne died from an ectopic pregnancy in 1933, aged just 29, leaving one son.[2]
The Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup has been presented to the winner of the Women’s Singles at the Australian Open since 1934 when it was first presented to Joan Hartigan.[3] She also won the title in both 1933 and 1936.[4] The perpetual Cup was donated by the New South Wales Tennis Association. For the few years previously there had been no trophy at all as Daphne had retained the prize after her 1930 win.[5]
Interestingly, for some years the impressive sterling silver cup was missing its ornate lid, misplaced in a Sydney office during the early 1970s after the Australian Open was held in Sydney in 1970 and 1971. When the Cup was finally returned to Melbourne, it was sent without its lid and for the next decade, the Women’s Singles’ winner posed for photos with a lidless trophy. The lid was discovered in a cupboard in about 1982. You can read more at https://ausopen.com/articles/news/mystery-missing-lid-stories-ao-trophies and see a photo of Evonne Goolagong Cawley with the incomplete Cup after her win in 1974.
Souvenir pin from the 2012 Australian Open of the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup
This image is of a pin from the 2012 Australian Open, featuring the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup won by Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in her finals match against Maria Sharapova of Russia.[6]
Today Daphne ranks third on the Australian all-time singles champion list after Margaret Court and Nancye Wynn Bolton.[7]
Congratulations to Madison Keys, the 2025 winner of the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
By J.J. MacRitchie
Local Studies Advisor
References
[1] The Evening News (Rockhampton, Qld) 4 February 1929 p.3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/199816678
[2] Kerry Regan, 'Akhurst, Daphne Jessie (1903–1933)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/akhurst-daphne-jessie-4985/text8281
[3] Australian Women’s Weekly 27 January 1934 p.43 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51428279
[4] Tennis Australia https://www.tennis.com.au/player-profiles/joan-hartigan
[5] Tan, Gill. The mystery of the missing lid: stories of the AO trophies. https://ausopen.com/articles/news/mystery-missing-lid-stories-ao-trophies
[6] https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/victoria-azarenka-of-belarus-poses-with-the-daphne-akhurst-news-photo/137834152
[7] Daphne Akhurst | AO https://ausopen.com/history/great-champions/daphne-akhurst