The big mistake Ash Barty spotted on the French Open trophy
When Ash Barty won the French Open on Saturday, she thought she was the first Australian woman to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen trophy since Margaret Court in 1973.
However, the cup has erroneously marked 1976 as another year with an Aussie winner.
Britain’s Sue Barker, who won the women’s singles championship in Paris 43 years ago, was recorded on the trophy with the letters ‘AUST’ next to her name to denote Australia instead of the ‘GB’ for Great Britain.
Barker, now aged 63, is a sports presenter for the BBC. She served as a professional tennis player from 1973 to 1984, winning 15 singles titles to reach a career-high ranking of world number 3. She earned her only Grand Slam title at the French Open after beating Czech’s Renata Tomanova at the age of 20.
Last time I checked, Sue Barker was British - are my eyes deceiving me? 🤔🤨🧐 @rolandgarros #britishtennis #australiantennis #confused #trophy pic.twitter.com/tJkLETCo21
— Ella Ling (@EllaLing23) June 8, 2019
It is not the only gaffe on the trophy. Under Barker, the name of the 1977 champion Mima Jausovec has been misspelt as ‘Jausevec’.
The name of the women’s doubles trophy, the Coupe Simonne Mathieu, has also been misspelt as ‘Simone Mathieu’ on the plaque and the cup.
The tournament organisers confirmed on Sunday that the mistakes would be fixed.
23-year-old Barty won the French Open on Saturday after defeating Czech’s Markéta Vondroušová 6-1 6-3. Barty became the third Australian woman to win the title after Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1971 and Margaret Court in 1973.