Surbiton_Trophy_Programme_2017

Charlotte Cooper Sterry
Charlotte Cooper Sterry
(champion 1900, 1901, 1902, 1907, 1913)
Born and brought up in west London, Sterry (née
Cooper) also won Wimbledon five times during
the late 1800s and early 1900s. She became the first
female champion at the Olympic Games in 1900.
he year was 1881. Queen Victoria was on
T the throne. Picasso was born. The infamous
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place, and the
First Boer War came to an end. It was also the year
this tennis club was born. Originally known as
Berrylands Lawn Tennis Club, it initially had 200
members, compared to the 1,500 or so we have
today.
By 1890 the club had staged its very first Surrey
Grass Court Championships, a pre-Wimbledon
tournament that has been – on and off and in
various guises – an important fixture on the British
tennis calendar ever since. Nowadays, of course, it’s
known as the Aegon Surbiton Trophy.
Many of the world’s greatest tennis players have
competed in this event. Here we pick some of our
favourite former champions and discover what
happened to them after their success at Surbiton.
Toupie Lowther
(champion 1903, 1906)
Tennis wasn’t Lowther’s only sporting skill. She
also excelled at fencing, motoring, weight-lifting
and even jujitsu. After World War I broke out
in 1914 she put together an all-female squad of
ambulance drivers which operated close to the
front lines in northern France. In 1918 the French
government awarded her the Croix de Guerre.
Arthur Gore
(champion 1907)
Gore was already something of a legend in
Edwardian tennis by the time he won here at
Surbiton in 1907 since, six years previously he had
captured the first of his three Wimbledon titles.
And he was no spring chicken: in 1909, he was 41
years old when he won Wimbledon for the third
time – still the oldest men’s singles champion at
the All England Club.
www.LTA.org.uk/aegonsurbitontrophy @SurbitonTrophy 5