Four surfaces, multiple cities, floods and eggs: The Open has come a long way

On a cricket ground in late November 120 years ago it begins. Roughly 5,000 people attend and in The Age newspaper in Melbourne, among the divorce petitions and pig market prices, a boxing bout involving a miner and sale of a “quiet” cow, is a piece on a tennis match.

The report is on the final of the Australasian Championships between Curtis (first name not published) and Rod Heath, written by an unimpressed correspondent. He notes the match suffers from the “cramp of caution”, chides the players for not volleying enough and eventually Heath wins because a tired Curtis has no “snap or vim in his work”.