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

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player and current radio and

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

. As a tennis player she won the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

event

Virginia Slims of San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the eighth-most populous city in the United States. San Diego is the seat of ...

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 cha ...

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 generat ...

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

Interceptor Interceptor may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Interceptor'', a British drama series on BBC One * Interceptor (game show), ''Interceptor'' (game show), a British television game show that ran during 1989 * Interc ...

''. In 2005, she appeared in the ITV programme ''

Celebrity Wrestling ''Celebrity Wrestling'' is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in 2005. It involved two teams of celebrities, competing against each other in wrestling style events. The series was presented by Kate Thornton and Rowdy Roddy Piper. ...

'' and went on to win it. In 2023 Croft was a contestant in BBC's ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'' and finished fourth. Most recently she has been a presenter and pundit for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD 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 broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Early life

Croft was born in Farnborough,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. Her father James was educated at the independent

Sutton Valence School Sutton Valence School (SVS) is a private school near Maidstone in southeast England. It has 560 pupils. It is a co-educational day and boarding school, boarding school. There are three senior boarding houses: Westminster, St Margaret's and Sutto ...

in Kent, becoming a chartered surveyor. He married her mother, Susan Templer of

Higham, Kent Higham is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. The village lies south-east of Gravesend and just north-west of Strood, in Medway. The civil ...

, in June 1963. Her father worked for Richard Ellis, which is now

CBRE Group CBRE Group, Inc. (an initialism of Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis) is an American commercial real estate services and investment firm with corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas and global financial headquarters at Lever House in Midtown Manh ...

. They lived in

Bickley Bickley is a district and a local government electoral ward in South East London, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is located 10.4 miles (16.7 km) south east of Charing Cross, bordering Elmstead to the north, Chislehurst to the n ...

. She was coached by Derek Bone.

Tennis career

After winning the Wimbledon and Australian Open girls' tournaments in 1984, she won the

tournament in 1985, beating

Wendy Turnbull Wendy Turnbull, (born 26 November 1952) is an Australian retired tennis player. 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 runner-u ...

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 north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

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 channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's prime time show '' Treasure Hunt'', following

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a British television and radio presenter, journalist and painter. She began her broadcasting career with the BBC World Service and later moved to childr ...

's successful run. This was followed by her own show on ITV, ''

''. 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 Wright Stuff'' is a British television chat show which was hosted by former tabloid journalist Matthew Wright from 2000 until 2018. It aired on Channel 5 on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15am. The series characterised itself as "Br ...

'', ''The Entertainment Show'', ''

GMTV GMTV (an initialism for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ''ITV Breakfast, ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited'', was the name of the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the Uni ...

'', ''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, succes ...

''. 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 BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport i ...

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. She was a presenter for

, including the 2012

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

. She also jointly presented ''Game, Set & Mats'' on

in 2015, along with former tennis player

Mats Wilander Mats Arne Olof Wilander (; born 22 August 1964) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

, during Grand Slam tournament weeks of tennis. In November 2011, Croft - a presenter on Eurosport - hosted the

AIB Media Excellence Awards The AIB International Media Excellence Awards - the AIBs - were created in 2005 by the Association for International Broadcasting. The AIBs recognise excellence in the international broadcasting industry with a focus on journalism and factual prod ...

, the international competition for journalism and factual production. In October 2012, Croft launched a company called DiaryDoll with TV presenter

Carol Smillie Carol Patricia Smillie (born 23 December 1961) is a Scottish former television presenter, actress and model. Smillie became famous as a presenter on British TV during the 1990s and early 2000s. She was best known for assisting Nicky Campbell on ...

, retailing waterproof pants for periods, post-maternity and pelvic-floor weakness, with an aim to be pretty, feminine, breathable and wash-proof whilst reducing stigma of the topic of women's pelvic health. In 2021 she was the winner of the IC of GB Sportsmanship Award, given to a British tennis player for admirable attitude as a sportsman or sportswoman during their career. Former winners include

Sue Barker Susan Barker (born 19 April 1956) is a British former television presenter and professional tennis player. During her playing career, Barker won 15 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including a major at the 1976 French Open. She reached a career- ...

(2019),

Virginia Wade Sarah Virginia Wade (born 10 July 1945) is a British former professional tennis player. She won three major tennis singles championships and four major doubles championships, and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all fo ...

(2017),

Greg Rusedski Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a Canadian-British former professional tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP Tour, ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October ...

(2011),

Tim Henman Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) during the early 2000s. Henman won 15 career ATP Tour titl ...

(1999), and Jeremy Bates (1995). Between September and December 2023, Croft was a contestant in the twenty-first series of the BBC's ''

'', partnered with professional dancer

Johannes Radebe Johannes Radebe (born 27 April 1987) is a South African dancer and choreographer. Early life Radebe was born in Zamdela, Sasolburg, Orange Free State, South Africa. His father, who worked for Coca-Cola, separated from Radebe's mother while he wa ...

. The couple finished in fourth place.

Personal life

Croft was married to Mel Coleman, a former international

America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

and

Admiral's Cup The Admiral's Cup is an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing. The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-number ...

yachtsman A yacht () is a sail- or motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a ...

. They were married on Saturday 10 July 1993 at

Brasted Brasted is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks (district), Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. Brasted lies on the A25 road, between Sundridge, Kent, Sundridge and Westerham; the road is named Westerham Road, High Street and Main Road ...

St Martins, by Rev Raymond Hill. She met her husband when he taught her to sail in 1987 for a TV programme. The guests included Roger Taylor and jockey

John Francome John Francome (born 13 December 1952) is a retired seven-time British Champion jump jockey. He was previously a racing trainer and broadcaster with Channel 4, and is an author. Racing career Francome first rode a pony called Black Beauty at ...

. They were driven away from the church in the original car from ''

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 children's film, children's Musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes and produced by Albert R. Broccoli. It stars Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Fröbe, Anna Quayle, ...

'', which was her favourite film. The couple lived in Coombe, near

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, in the London borough of

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

, with their three children, two daughters named Amber Rose and Lily and a son, Charlie. In 2009, jointly, they started the ''Annabel Croft Tennis Academy'' at the National Tennis Centre. After a short illness with

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a numb ...

, Coleman died on 24 May 2023. Croft has been active in raising awareness of child obesity, and is a supporter of the children's cancer charity Young Lives vs Cancer (formerly known as CLIC Sargent).

WTA career finals

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles

National team participation

Fed Cup

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Annabel 1966 births Living people Tennis players from the London Borough of Bromley Tennis players from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames 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 People from Bickley People from Kingston upon Thames 20th-century English sportswomen