Annabel Nicola Croft (born 12 July 1966) is a former professional British female

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

player and current radio and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garner ...

. As a tennis player she won the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tou ...

event Virginia Slims of San Diego and represented Great Britain in the

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was chan ...

and the

Wightman Cup The Wightman Cup was an annual team tennis competition for women contested from 1923 through 1989 (except during World War II) between teams from the United States and Great Britain. History U.S. player Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman wanted to gen ...

. After retiring from tennis, she turned to television presenting, with such shows as ''

Treasure Hunt Treasure hunt generally refers to: * Treasure hunting, the physical search for treasure, typically by finding sunken shipwrecks or buried ancient cultural sites * Treasure hunt (game), a game simulating a hunt for treasure Treasure Hunt may refer ...

'' and '' Interceptor''. In 2005, she appeared in the ITV programme '' Celebrity Wrestling'' and went on to win it. Most recently she has been a presenter for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It h ...

and the BBC.

Biography

Tennis career

Croft was born in Farnborough, Kent. After winning the Wimbledon and Australian Open girls' tournaments in 1984, she won the Virginia Slims of San Diego tournament in 1985, beating

Wendy Turnbull Wendy Turnbull, , (born 26 November 1952) is a retired tennis player from Australia. During her career, she won nine Grand Slam titles, four of them in women's doubles and five of them in mixed doubles. She also was a three-time Grand Slam runn ...

in the final in straight sets. In December 1985, she achieved a world ranking of 24. She played for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

in the

in 1985 and 1986, and in the

from 1983 to 1986. She continued to play through February 1988, but failed to reach another final.

After tennis

Despite her potential and being amongst the world's top 25 players, Croft retired from professional tennis at the age of only twenty-one, tired of the relentless travel and feeling she no longer enjoyed playing. Immediately after her retirement, Croft became the new face of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

’s prime time show ''

'', following Anneka Rice's successful run. This was followed by her own show on ITV, '' Interceptor''. In 1990, Croft released her own fitness video entitled ''Annabel Croft's Shape Tape''. She has been involved in coverage of Wimbledon Tennis Championship for the BBC, Radio 5 Live and GMTV, and has also worked for

and

as a tennis pundit. She has appeared on UK lifestyle TV shows such as '' The Wright Stuff'', ''The Entertainment Show'', ''

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

'', ''Out and About'' and ''

This Morning This Morning may refer to: * ''This Morning'' (TV programme), a British daytime television programme * ''This Morning'' (radio program), a Canadian radio show which aired from 1997 to 2002 * '' CBS This Morning'', an American morning show, succe ...

''. In June 2009, Croft was one of five volunteers who took part in a BBC series of two programmes ''Famous, Rich and Homeless'' about living penniless on the streets of London. After ''Famous, Rich and Homeless'' Croft did a follow-on Radio 5 Live radio show which was broadcast on 24 and 25 December 2009, entitled ''James: My Alcoholic Friend'', where she tries to track down the rough sleeper with whom she had spent a night on the streets. In May 2012, Croft gave a speech at the

Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...

in which, after talking about her tennis and media presenter careers, she spoke at length of her 3-day experience of living on the streets and the friendship she had formed with James during that time. She is a presenter for Sky Sports, including the 2012 US Open. She has also presented ''Game, Set & Mats'' on Eurosport during Grand Slam weeks of tennis. In October 2012, Croft launched a company called DiaryDoll with TV presenter Carol Smillie, retailing waterproof pants for periods, post-maternity and pelvic-floor weakness, with an aim to be pretty, feminine, breathable and washproof whilst reducing stigma of the topic of women's pelvic health.

Personal life

Croft is married to Mel Coleman, a former international yachtsman and current

investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated wit ...

. The couple live in Coombe, near Wimbledon, in the London borough of

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, with their three children. She is a member of the

All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, London, England, is a Gentlemen's club, private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon ...

. Croft has been active in raising awareness of

child obesity Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or well-being. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of ...

, and is a supporter of the children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Fed Cup

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Annabel 1966 births Living people Tennis people from Greater London English female tennis players British female tennis players English sports broadcasters English television presenters Reality show winners Tennis commentators Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Wimbledon junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles