Sylvia Harper (née Lance; 1 October 1895 – 21 October 1982) was an Australia

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player who won the singles title at the 1924

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

. She reached the singles final there two other times, in 1927, losing to

Esna Boyd Esna Boyd Robertson ( Boyd; 21 September 1899 – 13 November 1966) was an Australian tennis player who reached seven consecutive women's singles finals at the Australian Championships from 1922 through 1928. She won one of those finals, defea ...

, and in 1930, losing to

Daphne Akhurst Daphne Jessie Akhurst (22 April 1903 – 9 January 1933), also known by her married name Daphne Cozens, was an Australian tennis player. Akhurst won the women's singles title at the Australian Championships five times between 1925 and 1930. ...

. Harper won the women's doubles title at the Australian Championships three consecutive years. In 1923, her partner was Boyd, and in 1924 and 1925, her partner was Akhurst. She reached the final an additional three times with three different partners, in 1927, 1929, and 1930. Harper won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Championships in 1923 with

Horace Rice Horace Rice (5 September 1872 – 18 January 1950) was an Australian tennis player. The left-handed Rice, who played in knickerbockers and long black socks, won the Men's Singles title at the 1907 Australasian Championships, beating Harry ...

and was the runner-up in that event in 1925. According to

A. Wallis Myers Arthur Wallis Myers (24 July 1878 – 17 June 1939) was an English tennis correspondent, editor, author and player. He was one of the leading tennis journalists of the first half of the 20th century. Family life Myers was son of the Rev. Joh ...

of ''

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

'' and the ''

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'', Harper was ranked World No. 10 in 1924, the only year she was included in those rankings. Harper competed overseas on two occasions; in 1920 she competed at Wimbledon and, in 1925, captained the first women's tennis team to represent Australia internationally. At Wimbledon, she made the second round of the ladies singles, where she lost to Dorothy Shepherd, the ladies doubles, where she partnered

and the mixed doubles, where she partnered E. T. Lamb. She married businessman Robert Rainy Harper on 28 May 1924 and they had one son.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Doubles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runners-up)

Mixed doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

¹Through 1923, the French Championships were open only to French nationals. The World Hard Court Championships (WHCC), actually played on clay in Paris or Brussels, began in 1912 and were open to all nationalities. The results from that tournament are shown here for 1920 through 1923. The Olympics replaced the WHCC in 1924, as the Olympics were held in Paris. Beginning in 1925, the French Championships were open to all nationalities, with the results shown here beginning with that year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Sylvia Lance 1895 births Australasian Championships (tennis) champions Australian female tennis players Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Place of birth missing 1982 deaths 20th-century Australian sportswomen