Sue Barker is a former tennis player who worked as a British television presenter after she announces her retirement. She retired after this year’s Wimbledon Championships came to an end.
| Born on | 19 April 1976 |
| Born in | Paignton, Devon, England |
| Age | 66 |
| Residence | Stanton, Gloucestershire, England |
| Turned Pro | 1973 |
| Prize Money | US$ 878,701 |
| Retired | 1984 |
| Sun Sign | Aries |
Sue Barker was born on 19 April 1956 and spent her childhood days in Paignton, Devon. She went to a convent school. At the age of 10, she was one of the two young girls who received coaching from Arthur Roberts. He had coached Angela Mortimer to three Grand Slam titles. Roberts continued coaching Barker even after the term had ended. He charged a very nominal fee and Barker began to learn the tricks of the trade from an experienced coach.
Roberts advised Barker on the tournaments she should participate in. He would buy her one-way tickets and have her earn the return ticket from the tournament.
At the age of just 16, she was ranked 21st in the WTA rankings. Her mentor Roberts, advised her to move to the United States for her development. Barker was signed by Mark McCormack’s International Management Group (IMG). She moved to an IMG-provided townhouse in Newport Beach, California, where one of her neighbors was tennis legend, Rod Laver.
She received coaching at the John Wayne Tennis Club. In 1975, she won her first top-level singles title and added three more soon after. Her best result in a Grand Slam came at the French Open Grand Slam in 1976 when she won the women’s singles event.
In singles, Barker won 365 matches and lost 208. Her win percentage is an impressive 63.7. She played doubles sporadically and won 33 out of her 71 matches with a win percentage of 46.5.
She won a total of 15 titles in her career and achieved the highest ranking of No. 3 on 20 March 1977. In the doubles events, she managed to win 12 titles in her career.
In 1978, Barker broke off an engagement with Australian tennis player Syd Ball. She got into a relationship with golfer Greg Norman for a brief period of time.
An unfortunate incident happened in 1980 when Barker was temporarily blinded in her right eye after a dog jumped up to bite her. This happened in Spain. She could not see for the next five hours and feared that her playing career would come to an abrupt ending. However, thankfully, she got her vision back.
In 1982, Barker started dating singer Cliff Richard. They were spotted together on many occasions. Richard and Barker were clicked together holding hands during the Wimbledon.
After the relationship with Richard ended, Barker got into a relationship with tennis player Stephen Shaw. She eventually tied the knot with landscape gardener and former policeman Lance Tankard.
They live in the Cotswolds village of Stanton, Gloucestershire, after moving from a mansion on a 26-acre estate in Godalming, Surrey.
Barker retired in 1984 and began commentating in matches. She also worked as a sports reporter for Australia’s Channel 7 in 1985. From 1990-1993, she worked as an anchor for British Sky Broadcasting. In 1993, she joined the BBC Wimbledon coverage as a regular guest on Today at Wimbledon with Harry Carpenter. She took over as host of the show in 1994. She anchored the two-week-long broadcast from 2000 to 2022.
Barker has hosted BBC Sport’s coverage of the Australian Open, the French Open, Queens Club Championships, Eastbourne, the Davis Cup, the ATP World Tour Finals, and Wimbledon.
She was the presenter of the sports quiz show A Question of Sport (QoS). She retired as QoS presenter after BBC decided to make modifications to the show.
Barker has also hosted other sporting events like the Grand National between 2000 and 2007, the Derby between 2001 and 2007, and Racing at Ascot and Longchamp between 1995 and 1999. Other than these, she has also hosted Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, the Great North Run, World Athletics Championships and European Athletics Championships between 1999 and 2009, BBC Sports Personality of the Year between 1994 and 2012, Commonwealth Games between 1994 and 2010, Summer Olympics between 1996 and 2012 and the Winter Olympics between 1994 and 2010.
In June 1999, she co-presented coverage of Prince Edward’s wedding to Sophie Rhys-Jones at Windsor alongside Michael Buerk. Barker had introduced Rhys-Jones to Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest son at a charity function a few years earlier.
On 9 June 2022, Barker announced that she would be stepping down from BBC coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championship after the 2022 finals. She had been performing the role since 1993.
She is 66 years old.
She won the French Open Grand Slam in 1976.
She turned pro in 1973.
She is 5 feet 5 inches tall.
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