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Great Britain has been hosting Wimbledon, the oldest Grand Slam in existence, from the beginning. There’s no doubt that Britain has produced a fabulous tennis tradition that has stood the test of time.
Looking over from the past to the present, there are numerous great tennis players from Britain who have made both their country and the sport proud. Here’s a list of the five greatest British players of all time.
5. Christine Truman
Christine Truman had a strong presence in the tennis world from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. In 1959, she reached her highest ranking of World No. 2.
Truman came from a well-knit family who were supportive of her interest in the sport. Her professional tennis career took off when she became the British Junior Champion consecutively for two years – 1956 and 1957.
At the age of 16 Truman made her Wimbledon debut, in which she surprisingly beat the then 3rd seed and French Open Champion Shirley Bloomer, with whom she later partnered to play in the doubles category. In an era where not many women ventured into professional tennis, Truman took the court by storm as she won the French Open in 1959.
She finished as runner-up at the 1959 US Open and 1961 Wimbledon. She also won the doubles title in the Australian Open of 1960, and was the runner-up at Wimbledon 1959, in the doubles category again.
Truman won the Wightman Cup in 1958 after 21 consecutive wins by the US, and went on to become a 3-time champion at the event. She was later discovered to have partial blindness in her left eye, which wasn’t known during her successful stint in tennis.
After this condition was identified in 1962, she played gracefully for 12 more years, at the end of which she retired. She made Britain and the tennis world proud with her tennis and her determination to overcome all obstacles.
4. Angela Mortimer
Former World No. 1 Angela Mortimer hails from Plymouth, England. In her professional tennis career spanning 11 years, she won three Grand Slams: French Open (1955), Australian Open (1958) and Wimbledon (1961). She was also the runner-up at the 1956 French Open and 1958 Wimbledon.
At Wimbledon 1955, Mortimer partnered with Anne Shilcock to emerge as the winning pair in the doubles category. Next, partnering with Lorraine Coghlan, the pair reached the women’s doubles finals at the 1958 Australian Open.
Mortimer’s one and only mixed doubles partnership was with Peter Newman, and they reached the mixed doubles finals at the Australian Open of 1958.
Apart from all these achievements, Mortimer became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam since 1937. She was inducted into the prestigious Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993, and she also received the Freedom of the Borough of Merton.
3. Virginia Wade
Virginia Wade is a legendary former professional tennis player from Britain. She has three Grand Slam singles titles and four Grand Slam doubles to her credit. She also holds the record of being the only British woman to have won titles at each of the four Grand Slam Championships.
Wade’s career highest ranking was World Number 2 (1975), and she was also World Number 1 in the doubles category with Margaret Court.
Wade’s tennis career began taking shape when she won the British Hard Court Open at Bournemouth. Her first professional title win came when she defeated reigning champion Billie Jean King to win the US Open in 1968.
During her career of 26 years, Wade won a total of 55 professional titles. She participated 26 times at Wimbledon alone.
Wade was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1989. She taught tennis for a few years after her retirement from professional tennis.
2. Fred Perry
Fred Perry is a former World No. 1 tennis player from England. He has 8 Grand Slam titles, 2 Pro Slam Titles and 6 Major doubles titles to his credit.
Perry won the Wimbledon Championships 3 consecutive times between 1934 and 1936, to reign as the World Amateur Number 1. He was the last male British player to have won Wimbledon, until Andy Murray came along to win it in 2013. Perry was also the last British player to win the US Open Championships in 1936, until Murray took over in 2012.
Perry was the first player to win a Career Grand Slam, winning all the four singles titles at the age of 26, in the year 1935, when he won the French Open. He was also the World Champion in Table Tennis in 1929.
Perry was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1975.
1. Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray, former World Number 1, is a professional tennis player from England. He is a three-time career Grand Slam winner, an Olympic Champion twice and winner of the ATP World Tour Finals in 2016.
Murray is the only player in tennis history to have won two Olympics gold medals in singles.
He began playing tennis when he was all of three years old. At the age of 12, Murray won the prestigious junior event, the Orange Bowl. He won the Junior US Open in September 2004 and was soon recognized as the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.
In March 2005, Murray set the record of being the youngest Briton to take part in the Davis Cup. In February 2006, he became the British Number 1.
Subsequently, he won the US Open (2012), Wimbledon (2013, 2016), ATP World Tour Finals (2016) and two golds at the Summer Olympics (2012, 2016). Murray was awarded the ITF Player of the Year in 2016, and was knighted in 2017.
