{"id":719324,"date":"2026-07-30T15:55:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719324\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:55:20","slug":"edinburgh-born-tennis-pioneers-trophy-sold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719324\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh-born Tennis pioneer’s trophy sold"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tennis trophy won by Edinburgh-born Harold Mahony, the first Scottish-born Wimbledon winner 117 years before Sir Andy Murray, has fetched nearly \u00a35,000 at auction.<\/p>\n

Mahony, who was born in Charlotte Square, won the silver rose bowl for winning the Cheltenham Lawn Tennis Tournament in June 1890.<\/p>\n

He lifted the \u201cResidents Challenge Cup\u201d first prize after beating Australian-born James Baldwin in four sets in the final.<\/p>\n

Mahony, who was 23 years old, made his Wimbledon debut the following month, going on to win the men\u2019s singles title six years later and set a precedent for a Scots-born player matched only by Murray in 2013.<\/p>\n

The 1kg silver rose bowl, by 19th century silversmiths F. Sibray and J.F. Hall, had been part of a private Scottish collection.<\/p>\n

It went under the hammer in Budds sale \u201cMatch Point: The Tennis Memorabilia Timed Auction, where it was expected to fetch \u00a31000-1500.<\/p>\n

It eventually went for \u00a34960 \u2013 nearly five times the lower estimate.<\/p>\n

David Convery, Budd\u2019s head of sporting memorabilia, said: \u201cThis very handsome Victorian trophy was presented to Harold Mahony for winning the Cheltenham Lawn Tennis Tournament in 1890.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix years later he became the first Scottish-born player to win the men\u2019s singles at Wimbledon, which is remarkable as the feat was only repeated by Sir Andy Murray 117 years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had considerable interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harold Segerson Mahony was born at 21 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, on 13 February 1867, but only lived in Scotland as a child, and spent most of his life in Ireland.<\/p>\n

His father, Richard John Mahony, was a barrister whose main activities were the family estates and oyster-raising. He also had a home in Scotland \u2014 Dalmore Lodge in Leith.<\/p>\n

At 6ft 3in, Harold Mahony was an early pioneer of serve and volley, known by opponents for his fearsome backhand.<\/p>\n

He turned professional in 1890 and won the Cheltenham tournament in June that year, beating 31-year-old Baldwin 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.<\/p>\n

He made his Wimbledon debut just weeks later and won his only title there in 1896.<\/p>\n

He was the only Scottish-born man to win a Grand Slam until Murray won the US Open in 2012 and the only one to win Wimbledon until Murray defeated Novak Djokovic in three sets in 2013.<\/p>\n

Mahony also won two silver medals and a bronze in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.<\/p>\n

He died in 1905, aged 38, in a cycling accident in Ireland.<\/p>\n

The Cheltenham Lawn Tennis Championships were founded in 1879 and renamed the East Gloucestershire Championships in 1905. They ran until 1969.<\/p>\n

\"\"A tennis trophy won in 1890 by Harold Mahony<\/p>\n

\"\"A tennis trophy won in 1890 by Harold Mahony<\/p>\n

\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tennis trophy won by Edinburgh-born Harold Mahony, the first Scottish-born Wimbledon winner 117 years before Sir Andy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[208287,208288,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-719324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-edinburgh-local-news","tag-edinburgh-news","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}