THE Australian Open trophies have a busy schedule on their tour, but when they were on display at the Bright Tennis Club on Sunday, they could’ve easily been mistaken for an exhibit at the Louvre.

The memorial cups, also known as Daphne and Norman, are named after two Australian tennis players: Daphne Akhurst, who won the women’s singles title at the Australian Championship five times between 1925 and 1930, and Norman Brookes, a former Grand Slam Champion winning at Wimbledon in 1907 and 1914 and the Australasian Championship in 1911.

The cups have a busy publicity schedule leading up to the Australian Open in January 2024 and the Tennis Victoria representative who brought the trophies to Bright has advised that fortunately they had pre-booked the trophies for the regional tour, otherwise they would have been on a plane Paris bound.

The day was a great success with about 80 people coming along to view the trophies, enjoy some tennis, music and food.

In the afternoon, the club held their annual senior doubles club championships.

Although the rain held off for Daphne and Norman, the doubles players weren’t so lucky with all matches being played in a light drizzle of rain.

As the singles and mixed doubles divisions had already been contested earlier this year, the day’s events were focused on the men’s and Ladies’ doubles divisions.

Congratulations to Will Pearce and Chris Pangrazio, who won the men’s doubles in the match of the day, overcoming runners-up Craig Thompson and Mick Crocker in a tie-breaker 7-4.

In the ladies’ doubles, congratulations go to new pairing Jody Vlahandreas and Charlotte Paton who rallied well to outplay last year’s champions Mel Worth and Michelle Yarwood in a close match 6-4.