The Open Era
Australia · born Newcastle, New South Wales, 1956 · right-handed · unseeded winner of the 1978 Australian Open at Kooyong
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0
Sets dropped on the way to the 1978 Australian Open title
31
Games conceded in five rounds at Kooyong
44
Years as the last Australian to win a home singles title, until Ash Barty in 2022
1973
Australian girls' singles champion, five years before the senior title
Christine O'Neil was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on 19 March 1956. She won the Australian girls' singles in 1973 and turned professional the same year. Her first trip to Wimbledon, in 1974, was paid for by 18 months of work on a parcel delivery job; she reached the third round. Her best results on the tour came in doubles, with semi-finals at the Australian Open in 1976 and 1978 and quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1976.
By 1978 she was thinking of retiring. She came home early that year to prepare, won the Queensland Open, and entered the Australian Open at Kooyong ranked about 110th in the world, in a field thinned by Christmas and low prize money. Unseeded, she beat the third seed Beth Norton, Dorte Ekner and Dianne Evers, then Betsy Nagelsen 6-3, 7-6 in the final on 3 January 1979. It was her only singles title on the tour.
She left the tour within five years and later ran tennis schools in the Newcastle area, including at Morisset and Cessnock, before moving to Port Macquarie to coach. In January 2022 Tennis Australia invited her to the final, where she carried the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup on to Rod Laver Arena before Ash Barty ended her reign as the last home champion.
| Kooyong 1978 | Beat Leanne Harrison 6-2, 6-4, the third seed Beth Norton 6-4, 6-3, the qualifier Dorte Ekner 7-5, 6-1, Dianne Evers 6-0, 6-3 and Betsy Nagelsen 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), without losing a set |
|---|---|
| The final | She took the first set in under 35 minutes. Nagelsen led 3-1 in the second; O'Neil won four games in a row, was broken serving for the match at 5-3, and won the tiebreak. The match lasted about 80 minutes |
| Wimbledon | Third round in singles in 1974, her first visit; quarter-finals in doubles in 1976 |
| Same score, 44 years on | Ash Barty beat Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6 in the 2022 final, the same score by which O'Neil had beaten Nagelsen, a former coach of Collins |
| Australian Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Women's singles Australian Open | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"It's a bit of a trivia question and I've enjoyed having (that status) for 44 years, but I couldn't think of handing it over to a nicer person."
The person behind the player.
Newcastle, 1974
Her first trip to Wimbledon was made possible by an 18-month stint working a parcel delivery job. "I've been working all my life," she told the Herald Sun in 2008. "It was very much just travel and do it yourself."
Source: Pinch Hitters, 2019Kooyong, January 1979
As the players warmed up for the final, her name appeared on Kooyong's two manually operated scoreboards with an extra "l" added. She won in straight sets anyway.
Source: Associated Press, 2022Kooyong, January 1979
Even after her semi-final, in which she won the first set 6-0 and called it the best she had played all week, she said it was only when she woke on the morning of the final that she dared think she could win. Of the 5-3 game in the second set she said: "At five-three I choked on my serve."
Source: Pinch Hitters, 2019Port Macquarie, 2014
Asked about her place in Australian tennis, she told the Port Macquarie News: "It's pretty cool. I'm a good trivia question."
Source: Pinch Hitters, 2019Melbourne, 2022
She usually shied away from the limelight, but accepted Craig Tiley's invitation to fly down from Port Macquarie for the 2022 final. She had never met Barty. Before the match she carried the trophy on to the court; Barty then beat Collins by her own score of 1978.
Source: Associated Press, 2022; Countryman, 2022Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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