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British Tennis Champion, Annabel Croft retired from professional tennis at the age of twenty-one.
Annabel was born in London and raised in Kent where she learnt to play tennis at the age of nine. She soon emerged as a player of immense promise and within three years had become the National Champion at under 12yrs, 14yrs and 16 yrs age groups.
At 15, she was the youngest Briton to play senior Wimbledon for nearly 100 years. In 1984 she became junior Wimbledon Champion as well as Junior Australian Open Champion. A year later she collected her first senior tournament trophy in San Diego.
Contact – Great British Speakers today to book former GB tennis player Annabel Croft to speak or host your next corporate event or call +44 1753 439289.
Annabel’s charm and entertaining playing style had made her a great favourite with the crowds, both at live tennis events and on television and these attributes transferred naturally to the world of media.
Immediately after her retirement, Annabel developed and still continues to create long-term relationships with many of the leading broadcasters’ tennis output, both as an anchor, tennis reporter and as an all-around sports correspondent.
Annabel has developed a successful media career, initially as the face of Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt and ITV’s Interceptor. She has also taken part in a series of the award-winning Filthy Rich and Homeless for BBC1, where she lived homeless on the streets of London for 9 days.
Annabel also hosted her own series, The Flying Picnic, for Granada and Sky Travel. Traveling around in an original DeHavilland Moth plane, she collected the ingredients from around Britain to recreate the famous household guru’s ‘Mrs Beeton’s Picnic for Forty’ which since airing has received record viewer ratings. Tapping into her passion for healthy and fun eating and cooking for family and friends, The Flying Picnic saw Annabel celebrate the quality of food Britain really has to offer.
In 2012 she presented the Olympic Tennis Coverage for BBC Radio 5. Her involvement in Tennis is at the highest level both on and off screen.
Annabel presents for BBC Radio 5 live and many worlds feed for selected international Tennis events. Her main TV role is being the Tennis Anchor for International Eurosport covering the French and Australian Opens, as well as presenting and being a pundit on Sky Sports coverage of the US Open.
Every year, Annabel Croft plays an integral role in the coverage of Wimbledon, hosting Live@Wimbledon for the last 4 years for the Tournament hosts and its global Internet audience as well as BBC Radio 5 Live. In 2016, Annabel joined the BBC Presentation Team at Wimbledon.
As a fit, healthy, glamorous mum-of-three, Annabel uses her position to raise awareness of the benefits of Homeopathy and Natural medicines, as well as childhood obesity in the UK and the issues and causes surrounding it.
Annabel is married to former America’s Cup and Admiral’s cup yachtsman Mel Coleman. In 2009, they together launched the Annabel Croft Tennis Academy at the National Tennis Centre.
In 2016 Annabel commentated on the four Grand Slams – The Australian Open in Melbourne, The French Open in Paris, Wimbledon, The US Open in New York, together with every major tennis tournament throughout the year.