1906-1908 Coronado Country Club California Ladies’ Challenge Trophy presented to May Sutton

May Sutton, the 1904 U.S. National Women’s Singles Champion and the 1905 Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles Champion, won this California tournament 1906-1908. By successfully defending her title in both 1907 and again in 1908, Sutton retired the “unusually handsome and valuable” Grecian-design vase challenge trophy; upon which it became her property. This trophy has a depiction of a woman tennis player, which was rare during that era.

May Sutton also holds the distinction of being the first female player inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1956, and at that event donated the Coronado Country Club Women’s Singles Challenge trophy to the museum.