Daphne Jessie Akhurst (22 April 1903 – 9 January 1933) known also by her married name Daphne Cozens, was an Australian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Akhurst won the women's singles title at the

Australian Championships The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

five times between 1925 and 1930. According to Wallis Myers (''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

''), she was ranked World No. 3 in 1928.

Career

The second daughter of Oscar James Akhurst, a lithographer, and his wife Jessie Florence (née Smith), Daphne Akhurst won the women's singles title at the

five times, in 1925, 1926, 1928, 1929, and 1930. She is fourth on the list of most women's singles titles at the Australian Championships; behind only Margaret Court with eleven titles,

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

with seven and Nancye Wynne Bolton with six titles. She won the women's doubles title at the Australian Championships five times: in 1924 and 1925 with

Sylvia Lance Harper Sylvia Harper (née Lance; 1 October 1895 – 21 October 1982) was an Australia tennis player who won the singles title at the 1924 Australian Championships. She reached the singles final there two other times, in 1927, losing to Esna Boyd, an ...

, in 1928 with Esna Boyd Robertson, and in 1929 and 1931 with

Louie Bickerton Louie Mildred Bickerton Cozens (née Bickerton) (11 August 1902 – 6 June 1998) was a female tennis player from Australia. She was born in Clifton Hill, Victoria, Australia and won the women's doubles titles at the 1927, 1929, and 1931 Aus ...

. She and Marjorie Cox were the runners-up in 1926. In 1925 she was part of the first Australian women's team to tour Europe and reached the quarterfinal of the singles event at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

which she lost to

Joan Fry Joan Craddock Fry (6 May 1906 – 29 September 1985) was a British tennis player. Fry was a finalist at the 1925 Wimbledon Championships where she lost in straight sets to Suzanne Lenglen. She was part of the British team that won the 1930 ...

. During her second and last European tour in 1928, she reached the singles quarterfinal at the French Championships, in which Cristobel Hardie defeated her, and the semifinal at Wimbledon, which she lost in straight sets to

Lili de Alvarez ''Lili'' is a 1953 American film released by MGM. It stars Leslie Caron as a touchingly naïve French girl whose emotional relationship with a carnival puppeteer is conducted through the medium of four puppets. The film won the Academy Award for ...

. Akhurst won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Championships four times: in 1924 and 1925 with

Jim Willard Arthur James Willard (22 April 1893 – 10 June 1968), better known as ''Jim Willard'', was an Australian tennis player. Tennis career Willard won two mixed doubles titles alongside Daphne Akhurst at the Australasian Championships, the futur ...

, in 1928 with Jean Borotra, and in 1929 with

Gar Moon Edgar "Gar" Moon (3 December 1904 – 26 May 1976) was a tennis player from Australia who was best known for winning the 1930 Australian Championships – Men's singles title. He also won the 1932 Men's Doubles title with Jack Crawford. He wo ...

. She and Willard were the runners-up in 1926. She and her partner Jack Crawford reached the mixed doubles final at

in 1928, but lost to the team of

Elizabeth Ryan Elizabeth Montague Ryan (February 5, 1892 – July 6, 1979) was an American tennis player who was born in Anaheim, California, but lived most of her adult life in the United Kingdom. Ryan won 26 Grand Slam titles, 19 in women's doubles and mix ...

Patrick Spence Patrick Spence (11 February 1898 – 22 November 1983) was a South African tennis player. He was born in Queenstown, South Africa. He competed mainly in Great Britain and found his form in hard court tournaments. He notably won the mixed double ...

, 7–5, 6–4. Akhurst won the singles title at the German Championships in 1928 after a three-sets victory in the final against defending champion

Cilly Aussem Cilly Aussem (; 4 January 1909 – 22 March 1963) was a German tennis player. She was the first German, male or female, to win the singles title at Wimbledon, which she did in 1931. She also won the women's single titles at the French Champion ...

Personal life

Akhurst attended the Miss. E. Tildesley's Normanhurst School, followed by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. On 26 February 1930 at St Philip's Church of England, Sydney, Daphne Akhurst married Royston Stuckey Cozens, a tobacco manufacturer, and retired from serious competition soon after winning the Australian ladies' doubles championship in 1931. They had one son, Don. Daphne Akhurst Cozens died on 9 January 1933, aged 29, from an

ectopic pregnancy Ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus. Signs and symptoms classically include abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, but fewer than 50 percent of affected women have both of these symptoms. ...

Legacy

Since 1934 the trophy presented each year to the winner of the women's singles at the Australian Open is named the ''Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup'' in her honour. She was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame on Australia Day (26 January), 2006. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 5 titles

Doubles: 6 (5 titles, 1 runner-up)

Mixed Doubles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runners-up)

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

¹The French Championships were not held in 1924, as the Olympics were held in Paris that year.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Akhurst, Daphne 1903 births 1933 deaths Australasian Championships (tennis) champions Australian Championships (tennis) champions Australian female tennis players Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles People from the Inner West (Sydney) Sportswomen from New South Wales Tennis players from Sydney International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Deaths in childbirth 20th-century Australian women