All eyes on the prizes, Sydney silversmiths deliver for Australian Open

SYDNEY: That great attention to detail is the hallmark of a great tennis tournament will come as no surprise to silversmith Paul Smith, who is responsible for crafting the trophy taken home from the Australian Open by the women’s singles champion.

While the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup that has been awarded to the winner of the women’s singles since 1934 stays in Australia, Sydney-based smithery W.J. Sanders produces an exact replica that leaves Melbourne with the champion.

“It’s not technically an easy trophy to make,” Smith told Reuters.

“It’s quite simple in its design, which means you’ve got to be quite accurate.

“Its simple silhouette means it’s a very elegant trophy. To me, it’s kind of the epitome of a trophy, isn’t it?”

Smith is part of a team of 10 hard at work in the back streets of Sydney crafting 150 trophies for the 2026 Australian Open, which also include an exact replica of the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup for the men’s champion at Melbourne Park.

For General Manager Darren May and his team, work on the trophies began before the 2025 edition of the Grand Slam and will conclude when the fruits of their labours are handed out to title winners on Rod Laver Arena early next year.

“When we get to that final, men’s and women’s and doubles final, and they hold that trophy up, we all remember the time it took us to create those trophies and the craftsmanship that went into it,” May told Reuters.

The ‘major’ trophies - the men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles - are all handmade from roughly 18 kg of silver and have a value of at least A$860,000 ($573,534).

The skill set required to make these trophies by hand is dying out and it is officially considered an “endangered craft” on Britain’s Heritage Crafts Red List.

May, though, would not craft the trophies any other way.

“Sure, you can mass produce, but mass production, it takes the life out of the object,” he said.

“That human hand, cannot be reproduced by a machine.”

Jannik Sinner held aloft the Norman Brookes trophy earlier this year, while Aryna Sabalenka was the recipient of the Daphne Akhurst.

They will both be back in Melbourne from January 18 to February 1 looking to add another Australian Open title, and another piece of W.J. Sanders craftsmanship, to their trophy cabinets.