Daniel Jonathon Lobb (born 7 January 1972) is a British retired tennis player and television presenter, best known for co-presenting the

ITV Breakfast ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited (previously known as ''GMTV, GMTV Limited'') is the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November ...

programme '' Daybreak'' from 2010 until 2012. Between 2015 and 2016, he co-presented ''Cowboy Builders'' on Channel 5.

Early life

Lobb grew up in Colden Common near

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. He attended Peter Symonds College in Winchester, where he studied Biology, Chemistry and Economics.

Tennis career

Lobb was assisted by College Prospects of America to gain a tennis scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Martin in the USA. He was named as an

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

(for tennis) and graduated from the school of Business with high honours. After coaching at various tennis clubs in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Lobb played professionally for three years reaching a British ranking of 18 in 1997. After retiring in 1998 he combined coaching and modelling for three years as well as getting involved in sports PR and

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

in London.

Broadcasting career

In 2001, Lobb started part-time work at a local cable station assisting the sports producer before being given the opportunity to present a live show. From there he moved on to '' 5 News'' and was offered a contract by Sky Sports in January 2002, presenting mostly on '' Sky Sports News''. In October 2007, he began presenting '' The Club'' on Sky Poker, a humorous magazine show based around

Poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

. He presented with Matt Broughton. On 30 December 2008 during a live Sky Sports News programme, Lobb was co-presenting with Simon Thomas when it was revealed that this would be Lobb's final appearance on the channel. Thomas thanked Lobb for his seven-year service and joked that he was "still the only presenter to have beat Tim Henman - as he has liked to remind us over 400 times!" (This was in reference to Lobb's professional tennis career). In May 2009, Lobb became a sports presenter on

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

. Lobb moved to

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 ...

as the sports correspondent in January 2010. He transferred to the replacement programme '' Daybreak'' on 6 September 2010, appointed sports editor, and stand-in presenter. On 2 September, he took over from Adrian Chiles as the Friday co-presenter of ''Daybreak'' and on 6 December 2011 he took over from Chiles full-time on an interim basis. Aled Jones was appointed as Chiles' permanent replacement with Lobb leaving the programme on 31 August 2012. On 6 September 2011, it was announced that Lobb would take part in the 2011 series of ''

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 ...

'' on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

. He was partnered with Katya Virshilas. He was the second person to be voted off the show. In January 2013 he presented a one-off Ping pong event for Sky Sports. In 2015, Lobb returned to television as a co-presenter of ''Cowboy Builders'' on Channel 5. The show ended in 2016. Lobb has been a commentator on Wimbledon television broadcasts for Wimbledon Broadcasting Services. In 2023, he released his first documentary, ''Silver Servers'', about super senior tennis players, including Kingdon Van Nostrand and John Powless.

Filmography

References

External links

Dan Lobb
Official website (archived)
Dan Lobb
on

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lobb, Dan British sports broadcasters British television presenters Living people Sportspeople from Winchester Sky Sports presenters and reporters 1972 births British male tennis players UT Martin Skyhawks athletes College men's tennis players in the United States British expatriate tennis players in the United States Mass media people from Winchester English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English tennis players 20th-century English sportsmen