What the tournament was called in 1967
The event now known as the Australian Open was, in January 1967, the Australian Championships. It was held in Adelaide, in the middle of the southern summer, and it was open only to amateurs. The “Open” label came later: tennis in general moved to open competition in 1968, and the Australian event followed in 1969. So a “1967 Australian Open” is a convenient modern shorthand rather than the name used at the time.
The title went to the home favourite. Roy Emerson, from Queensland, won the men’s singles, and the United States’ Nancy Richey won the women’s.
Roy Emerson and the amateur game
Emerson was the dominant man in the amateur game in the mid-1960s. The best players of the era, including his compatriot Rod Laver, had turned professional and were barred from the major championships, which left a strong but thinner field for amateurs. That context matters when reading the record books. Emerson’s six Australian titles, the last of them in 1967, came in this period, and his total of twelve Grand Slam singles titles has long been cited as a men’s record from the pre-open years.
His final in Adelaide was against Arthur Ashe, a young American who was then serving in the US Army. Emerson won in straight sets. Ashe’s rise was close: in September 1968 he won the US national title at Forest Hills, the first black man to do so, and he later won the Australian title himself in 1970.
Emerson also won the French title in 1967. That result belongs with the Roland Garros clay story, but it shows how complete his year was on the amateur circuit.
The women’s title
Nancy Richey, a Texan, beat Australia’s Lesley Turner in the women’s final. The Australian women were then among the strongest in the world, and a home player reaching the final was the norm rather than a surprise. Richey’s win is a reminder of how competitive the Americans were on hard and fast surfaces, and that the Australian Championships were a title worth travelling a long way to contest.
Women’s tennis in these years had a deep Australian tradition, and much of the sport’s later story, from the first Grand Slam singles winners to the tournaments of Oceania, runs through this event. The event’s earliest editions were known as the Australasian Championships, a name that dates from before the current title.
Why the venue and timing mattered
Adelaide was one of several cities that took turns hosting the event, which rotated around Australia in this period. Grass courts were the norm, and the tournament sat at the start of the calendar. The long journey from Europe and North America meant that many leading players skipped it, which affected the strength of the field in some years.
That travel burden helps explain why the Australian title was often treated as less prestigious than the one at Wimbledon championships. It also helps explain why Australian players, who did not need to travel, so often won at home. Australia was also the leading Davis Cup nation of the time, holding the cup in 1967 as it had in the preceding years, which gave its amateurs a strong sense of purpose.
The state of amateur tennis
The amateur label hid a good deal. Leading players commonly received expenses and other support, and the gap between stated rules and actual practice was one reason the sport’s governing bodies eventually accepted open competition. Players who turned professional were barred from the major championships, so the best of them toured in separate events with their own audiences. Seen this way, the Australian Championships of 1967 offered a strong but incomplete picture of who was best in the world. That was a source of frustration for fans and players alike, and it helped build the pressure that ended the old system.
What came next
The 1967 championships were among the last of their kind. When open tennis arrived, prize money and professionals entered the draws, and the sport’s balance shifted. Laver, no longer excluded, won all four Grand Slam titles in 1969. Emerson, then thirty years old, belonged to the last generation that had to choose between the amateur circuit and a professional contract, and the choice shaped who appeared in the record books.
Looking back, the 1967 edition is best seen as the end of an era rather than a standalone triumph. Emerson’s win, Ashe’s emergence and Richey’s title all sit within a short window before the sport reorganised itself.