Toupie Lowther
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| Full name | May Lowther |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |
 United Kingdom |
| Born | 1874 London, England |
| Died | 30 December 1944 Pulborough, England |
| Singles | |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| Wimbledon | SF (1903, 1906) |
May "Toupie" Lowther (also Toupée Lowther) was an English tennis player and fencer active during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century.
She was well known as an amateur player in championship women's tennis, and during the tennis season was a regular participant in the British tournaments at Edgbaston, Beckenham, Manchester and Wimbledon as well as on the traditional European circuit. In particular she played frequently at the German Ladies Championships (held at the prestigious Bad Homburg Tennis Club) from 1896 – 1901 and then in Hamburg (the Eisbahn-Verein auf der Uhlenhorst).
In 1898 at Bad Homburg she lost to compatriot Elsie Lane 5–7, 5–7 after a "brilliant, albeit erratic, Toupée (sic) Lowther who had abandoned her usual play in favour of an uninspired game from base line in two straight sets." In 1899 she lost a close match in an early round to Charlotte "Chatty" Cooper, (later Mrs Sterry). After leading 5–1 in the second set Toupie lost six games in a row. However Toupie was finally victorious at Bad Homburg in 1901 defeating Gladys Duddell in the final 6–0, 6–0, a victory described as the result of "patience and perseverance".
Lowther won the singles event at the British Covered Court Championships in 1900, 1902 and 1903. In 1901 she won the singles title at the German Championships, held that year in Bad Homburg, and received her prize, a gold brooch, from King Edward. Between 1900 and 1907 she made five appearances at the Wimbledon Championships, playing in the singles event. Her best result was reaching the semifinals in 1903, losing in straight sets to eventual champion Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, as well as in 1906, this time losing in three sets to Charlotte Cooper Sterry.
She was described with affection by the tennis writers of the time. The brothers Reginald and Laurence Doherty invited her to write a chapter entitled Ladies' Play for their book Lawn Tennis published in 1903 and George Hillyard, the All England Tennis Club Secretary for many years and husband to Blanche Hillyard in his book Forty Years of First Class Tennis (1924) was glowing in his appreciation: "Here is the extraordinary case of a player whose potentialities were greater than any other English lady who ever walked onto a court, but who, unfortunately was saddled with a temperament which was so hopelessly unsuitable to lawn tennis that it reduced her play.... not one, but at least 2 classes below what her form should have been... It is no flight of imagination to say that had Miss Lowther been blessed with the temperament of a Mrs Sterry or a Mrs Lambert Chambers, she might have been as fine a player as Mlle Lenglen herself."
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