A century after she played in the first ever Australasian women’s final, Esna Boyd has taken her place among the immortals by being inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame.
A ceremony at Rod Laver Arena announcing her elevation was overseen by her three granddaughters who had made the long trip from the UK to honour their famous ancestor.
“We are incredibly proud. We have always known and cherished her memory but now her fame and achievements have exploded, and it is really exciting and a privilege for three members of the family to be part of it,’ said Vicki Wienand.
Esna Boyd first came to notice by winning the Victorian Schoolgirls’ Championships in 1918. Her rise as a player was in parallel with the formalisation of women’s tennis in Australia. Esna reached the final of the first seven women’s singles finals – eventually taking the title in 1927 when she charged through the tournament dropping only one set.
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Her collection of trophies grew to eight Australian titles (one singles, four doubles, three mixed doubles) plus multiple state titles in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.
The esteemed player and coach Pat O’Hara Wood wrote that her game was based around a powerful forehand that he described as “a round-arm sweep made with the whole of her arm with practically no wrist action, and which gets the whole weight of her body.”
In 1925, Esna was selected for the first Australian women’s team to go overseas and play at Wimbledon. The Victorian was captain of the second tour in 1928. That year, the influential tennis writer A. Wallis Myers in The Daily Telegraph ranked Esna in the world’s top 10.
The tours were gruelling but served their purpose in elevating the standard of the Australian’s play. Esna returned with a hardened attitude and appealed to future generations to concentrate on their backhands and experiment with different grips. Her ambition was to help produce the first Australian woman to be a world champion.
“We are bursting with pride but showing it in a suitably restrained fashion. We knew she was a champion, but we didn’t realise how much of a champion she was.”
Esna Boyd’s grandson Angus Nicoll
“We are all good fighters,” she wrote after the 1928 tour, “but we must practise more aggressive tactics before we can beat the world’s best.”
It was on this tour that her life took a dramatic turn when she met Angus Robertson. The couple were married in 1929 and Esna moved to Scotland to start a family. Tennis was not forgotten though, as she won six Scottish Hardcourt titles, including one in which she competed while three months pregnant.
“Her son Bill was always tickled at the thought that he had helped her win the Scottish championships,” said Esna’s daughter-in-law Mary Robertson. “I thought it was frightful.”
When the Tennis Australia Awards Committee (made up of past players and officials) voted to induct Esna, the search went out for relatives. Esna had only one sibling, a sister, who had remained in Australia but who had no children and so the net was cast globally. Eventually, contact was made with Tom Nicoll in Scotland who confirmed he was a great-grandson and news quickly spread among the clan.
“We are bursting with pride but showing it in a suitably restrained fashion,” laughed grandson Angus Nicoll. “We knew she was a champion, but we didn’t realise how much of a champion she was.”
The spoils and memorabilia from Esna’s career are scattered among the family and so members gathered them all together in Glasgow where they admired freshly polished silverware, looked at old photographs and dusted off match reports and diaries.
“She was impressive, adventurous, talented and quite pioneering and that is inspiring to all of us really, especially me and my sister,” Ms Wienand said.
In a short amount of time after hearing the news, Esna’s three granddaughters decided to make the trek from wintry Scotland to summery Melbourne so they could be at the ceremony.
The women gathered on centre court and unveiled a bust of their famous grandmother that is now permanently displayed in Garden Square at Melbourne Park.
Previous Australian Hall of Fame inductees
2024: Lleyton Hewitt
2023: James Outram (JO) Anderson
2022: Maude Margaret Molesworth and Joan Hartigan
2021: Mary Carter Reitano
2020: John Fitzgerald
2019: Dianne (Fromholtz) Balestrat
2018: Jan (Lehane) O’Neill
2017: Beryl (Penrose) Collier
2016: Rex Hartwig
2015: David Hall
2014: Kerry (Melville) Reid
2013: Judy Dalton
2012: Ken Fletcher
2011: Owen Davidson
2010: Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde
2009: Wendy Turnbull
2008: Pat Rafter
2007: Mark Edmondson
2006: Daphne Akhurst
2005: Australian Open Centenary
2004: Brian Tobin
2003: Pat Cash
2002: Mervyn Rose and Thelma (Coyne) Long
2001: Mal Anderson and Nancye (Wynne) Bolton
2000: Ken McGregor
1999: Australia inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame
1998: John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Lesley (Turner) Bowrey, Adrian Quist
1997: Fred Stolle, Jack Crawford, Gerald Patterson
1996: Frank Sedgman, John Bromwich, Sir Norman Brookes, Ashley Cooper, Harry Hopman
1995: Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall
1994: Roy Emerson, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Neale Fraser
1993: Rod Laver, Margaret Smith (Court)
Shuaeeb Is a seasoned sportswriter, social worker, and philanthropist. He has been renowned for his support of disabled sports persons and championing for equal rights and opportunities for all sports persons. He is also a father of 4 children and married to His partner Moana who is of Australian descent. He currently does sports volunteering and disability support work aside from writing for this August media.
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