SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile’s most important sporting treasure is coming home for the first time. In October, the trophy that Anita Lizana won in 1937 in New York — the only Grand Slam title in Chilean history — will land in Santiago. It will arrive in the hands of the Lizana family and CLAY.
Thirty-two years after her death, the family of the legendary tennis player decided to donate the trophy to Chile to expand Lizana’s legacy to new generations. The aim is for young people to draw inspiration from the player and her remarkable triumph at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills — then the home of the US National Championships and the forerunner of today’s US Open.
“We would like to see the trophy serve as an inspiration for women and girls who play tennis, and for all Chileans,” said Carol Ellis Lizana (77), the player’s youngest daughter, in a lengthy interview with CLAY at her home in Gunnislake, 350 kilometres west of London.
“It is a great thing for Chile and South America that the trophy will be there. It represents her legend. Our mother would have been very happy,” Ellis added.
Lizana’s feat at one of the world’s most prestigious tournaments, 89 years ago, set a milestone that no one from her country has matched since. It is also an important reference point in the history of feminism in Chile: Lizana triumphed internationally at a time when women in her country did not even have the right to vote.
By the time she won in New York, Lizana was already building her life in Europe, where she married and lived until her death in 1994. Paradoxically, the trophy bearing her name has never set foot in Chile.
In mid-October, a historic moment will be marked for Lizana’s homeland: her family will travel to Santiago from England with the trophy. CLAY will organise the event to celebrate an occasion of great symbolic and cultural significance for Chile — the only Grand Slam title, finally on home soil.
A documentary produced by CLAY in the United Kingdom and the United States will tell this story in depth, and will be broadcast on the screens and platforms of CNN Chile and CLAY, with images that convey the magnitude of Lizana’s triumph and the importance of the cup remaining in Chile to keep her memory alive.
“The trophy is not mine, it is not my family’s. It belongs to my mother Anita. She would be very happy to know it is going to her country. It has much more value for the Chilean people — it is far better than just sitting in our homes,” said the daughter of the world No. 1 in 1937, according to the unofficial rankings of that amateur era.
The significance of the trophy grows further when viewed against the broader history of tennis.
Lizana was the first Latin American to win a Grand Slam — and indeed the first player born outside the United States, Europe and Australia to achieve the feat.
To this day, only three women from the region have claimed glory at any of the four most important events in tennis: alongside the Chilean stands Brazilian María Esther Bueno, three-time Wimbledon champion and four-time winner in New York in the 1960s, and Argentine Gabriela Sabatini, who won the 1990 US Open.
