BBC - Wimbledon 2013 on BBC TV: Biographies - Media Centre
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Wimbledon 2013 on BBC TV: Biographies
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Andrew Castle
With a 10-year career as the BBC's lead tennis commentator, Andrew’s career has seen him commentate on 10 Wimbledon Men's Singles Finals alongside John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker and Tim Henman.
Andrew played professionally for seven years. A former British No. 1, who turned professional in 1986, Andrew is a double Olympian, having been a member of Great Britain’s Olympic Teams in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. In that time he played all the great players of that era including Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander, Pat Cash, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.
In addition to his sports commentary, Andrew has also hosted a variety of programmes including ‘Andrew Castle’s Tennis Night’ on Radio 5 live as well as shows on Channel 4 and ITV, including over 10 years on the GMTV sofa.
Andrew Cotter
Andrew Cotter is one of the most recognised voices across BBC Television and Radio’s coverage of golf, rugby and tennis.
Originally a presenter of sports bulletins on BBC Radio 5 live, as well as Radio 1, 2 and 4, Andrew went on to become a sports presenter on the BBC News Channel, while at the same time building a career commentating on golf and rugby for BBC Radio and Television, working on major events including the Six Nations, Ryder Cup, The US Masters, US Open and USPGA.
Andrew began his broadcasting career in commercial radio in his native Scotland, going on to work for Sky News before joining the BBC in 2000. He recently joined BBC TV Athletics commentary team.
Anne Keothavong
Anne is a British tennis player, a former British No.1, and currently ranked as British No. 5 and World No. 186. So far in her career, she has won a total of 20 International Tennis Federation singles titles, eight ITF doubles titles and reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 48. She has also reached the semi-finals of six international tournaments on the main tour and the semi-finals of one premier tournament.
Boris Becker
Boris Becker and his success story made tennis a national sport in Germany. Born in 1967, in Leimen, Germany, Boris became the youngest man to win Wimbledon at 17 years and seven months when he defeated Kevin Curren in 1985. Over his career he won 49 ATP singles titles including six Grand Slam titles and became World No.1 for the first time after victory at the Australian Open in 1991. In 1992 he won the Olympic gold medal with Michael Stich.
Today, he is founder of Becker Private Office, Boris Becker GmbH, owns three car dealerships and is a testimonial for selected brands. Boris is Academy member of the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation, as well as ambassador for the German Aids Foundation and patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation (UK).
Boris Becker is also active in the international media-world, he is sports-columnist and tennis commentator for various international media. He joined the BBC Sport commentary team for the 2002 Championships.
David Mercer
David entered sports broadcasting as a freelancer via BBC Wales in 1979 and joined BBC Radio Sport in London on a full-time basis in 1984. He joined the BBC Television commentary team in 1992.
Tennis has been his main sport since then but he has also commentated and reported on football, rugby union, rowing, skiing, skating, badminton, snooker, squash, ice hockey and American football.
David won the Welsh Junior Doubles title in 1968 and in 1969 he captained the tennis team at Nottingham University. From 1973 – 1984, he umpired at Wimbledon, taking care of the Men’s Doubles Final in 1983 and Men’s Singles Final in 1984.
Elizabeth Smylie
Australian tennis player Elizabeth Smylie enjoyed a 15-year professional career, winning two titles and peaking at No.20 in singles. She achieved enormous success as a doubles player winning 32 titles and reaching a ranking of No. 5. Liz reached 13 Grand Slam finals winning four. Six of these finals were at Wimbledon, three doubles and three mixed, taking the doubles title in 85 and mixed in 91. Liz also won Bronze in the doubles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
At Wimbledon in 1985 Liz partnered with Kathy Jordan to win the doubles - ending the 109 match winning streak of Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver in the final. In total Liz contested 13 Grand Slam finals, and won three mixed majors, including Wimbledon with John Fitzgerald in 1991, and the US Open twice.
Liz is now a broadcaster and a key part of the BBC's commentary team.
Jo Durie
Jo Durie was ranked World No. 5 and is the last British woman to reach a grand slam semi-final, which she did at both the 1983 French and US Opens. Jo also lifted the mixed-doubles title with partner Jeremy Bates at Wimbledon in 1987 and the Australian Open doubles in 1991.
Jo hung up her racket in 1995 after her final bow at Wimbledon and turned her focus to coaching, overseeing the early career of both Anne Keothavong as a teenager and Elena Baltacha until a couple of years ago. On retirement from playing professionally, Jo also began commentating for the BBC and has since worked at Eurosport.
John Lloyd
John Lloyd is a former professional tennis player and current television commentator.
During his career, John became the first British male tennis player to reach a Grand Slam singles final in Australia in 1977. Though he never won a Grand Slam singles titles, John did win three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles partnering Australia's Wendy Turnbull, beginning with the French Open mixed doubles in 1982. The pair finished runners-up in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon that year, and then went on to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles crown in both 1983 and 1984.
When his playing career came to an end, Lloyd stayed within the tennis world, finding work as a coach and television commentator. Since the 1990s, Lloyd has been a commentator and analyst for the BBC's tennis coverage, particularly at Wimbledon. He has also worked for Sky Sports on their coverage of the US Open 2009.
John McEnroe
A winner of 77 singles titles and 78 doubles, John first made Grand Slam headlines in 1977 while still in his teens by capturing the French Open mixed doubles title and reaching the singles semi-finals at Wimbledon. He asserted his mastery on the professional circuit soon after, with three successive US Open Championships, in 1979, 1980 and 1981.
He ended Bjorn Borg's five year reign at Wimbledon with a commanding victory in 1981 that promoted him to the men's top-ranked player (and the youngest to achieve it), a position he held for four years. He took another Wimbledon title in 1983, but John McEnroe’s most memorable year was 1984 when he won both Wimbledon and US Open titles, winning 13 of 15 singles tournaments for an 82-3 record for the year, which still stands as the best single year winning percentage on the ATP professional tour.
In addition to his singles achievements, John dominated the field as a doubles player. With long-time partner Peter Fleming, John earned four Wimbledon titles and three US Open titles as well as seven Masters titles, which they won consecutively from 1978 - 1984. John represented the United States 12 times in Davis Cup competition, achieving five championship team wins and establishing the record for the most US Davis Cup wins (39 singles and 15 doubles). More recently, John was a doubles winner of the SAP Open in San Jose ATP Tournament in February 2006 at 47 years of age. John McEnroe also commentates on television for the BBC, CBS, NBC, ESPN and the Tennis Channel. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.
Lindsay Davenport
A former ﻿World No. 1, Lindsay won three Grand Slam singles tournaments, 55 career singles titles, 37 career doubles titles and a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in a stellar playing career that ran from 1991-2008. She is also one of only four women since 1975 who have finished the season as World No. 1 at least four times. Lindsay's career peaked during the period 1998-2000, when she won the US Open, Wimbledon, Australian Open and WTA Championship as well as reaching the semi-finals of the French Open.
Her ground strokes, in particular her two-handed backhand and her excellent placement were the core of her game, which was described by many as 'rock solid'. Having taken a break from tennis in latter part of 2006 and much of 2007 to have her first child (Jagger Jonathan), Lindsay wasted no time in returning to her winning ways with a tour win in Bali, followed in 2008 by further tour wins including her 55th and final win at a tournament in Tennessee.
Lindsay eventually announced her retirement from the game at the beginning of 2009 when she learnt she was pregnant with her second child Lauren Andrus. This will be Lindsay’s fourth year working as a co-commentator and analyst with the BBC.
Louise Pleming
Louise Pleming began playing tennis aged six at the Vic Edwards Tennis School and made her debut in ITF and WTA level tournaments in 1982. She focussed upon being a doubles specialist and has 12 ITF doubles titles to her name, including the Austrian Open.
Louise was appointed by Tennis Australia as a national touring coach in 2006, and in 2007 captained the victorious Australian Junior Fed Cup team. She currently works as a touring Fed cup coach for the Australian WTA tour players.
In addition to her work as a coach Louise also works as a tennis television commentator for the BBC and other networks including Tennis Channel, Fox Sports Australia, ESPN, ESPN Star (Asia) an ABC Australia.
Mark Cox
Mark's finest hour as a player was as a member of the Great Britain team which reached the final of the 1978 Davis Cup against the USA. In the semi-final against Australia, he partnered David Lloyd to victory in the deciding doubles rubber. Mark won 10 singles tournaments between 1970 and 1977, was twice a quarter-finalist in the Australian Open, reached the quarter-finals of the US Open in 1966, and was runner-up at Queen's in 1977.
Mark Petchey
Mark began playing tennis aged eight when his father Rod, who made a special racquet that his son could lift easily. He won his first junior tournament aged 11, at Norbury, Surrey, and went on to capture four grass-court singles (14s, 16s, 18s) and eight national doubles titles before turning professional in 1988.
Mark spent 10 years as a professional player and competed at Wimbledon from 1988-1998.  His best Grand Slam performance was reaching the 1997 Wimbledon third round and he also appeared at 1994-95 US Open and 1995 Australian Open.
Mark retired due to injury, aged 28, in August 1998 to concentrate on coaching and media work, having attained a career-high singles ranking of No. 80 (8 August 1994). He was named LTA Manager of Men's National Training in September 2003 and resigned in July 2005 to coach Andy Murray, until April 2006. During his time with Murray, the Scot moved from No. 351 to No. 41 and captured his first ATP title in San Jose.
A former British No. 1, Mark started his television commentary career at Eurosport and as a radio summariser on BBC Radio 5 live. He is now a leading commentator for Sky Sports and BBC and has commentated on the Wimbledon Women’s final for the last two years.
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova is an influential global athlete and cultural figure whose dominance and longevity both on and off the court is truly record breaking. Born in Prague in 1956, Navratilova is arguably the most successful tennis player ever to set foot on the court. She is the only player in history to win Grand Slam titles in four different decades, including a curtain-closing US Open victory in mixed-doubles at age 49. Navratilova’s resume is highlighted by 59 Grand Slam titles, a record nine Wimbledon singles championships, and an unrivalled 344 tournament victories.
Pat Cash
One of the most recognisable pundits on the World Tour, Pat Cash works across BBC Television and for BBC Radio 5 live at Wimbledon. Pat is well known for his iconic Wimbledon singles win in 1987 against Ivan Lendl where he broke convention and climbed up from Centre Court into the seats to celebrate with family.
Born in Melbourne in May 1965, Pat turned pro in 1982 and reached his highest ranking of World No 4 in 1988. In 1984, he became the youngest player to compete in the Davis Cup Final, helping Australia to defeat Sweden 3-2. Pat made the final of the Australian Open twice in 1987 and 1988 the semi-final of the US Open in 1984 as well as competing in the Olympics in 1984.
Since retirement, Pat has been involved in coaching including periods working with Greg Rusedski, Mark Philippoussis and the Australian Junior Davis Cup side and started his own tennis academy in Australia and the Caribbean.
Pat remains the only player to win the Junior, Men’s singles and Legends titles at Wimbledon and nowadays spends his time playing on the Champions Tour, coaching, pursuing a media career, charity and business interests and indulging his love of music playing guitar in a rock band.
Sam Smith
Sam was National Champion in 1997 and British No. 1 from 1996-99. She reached her highest world ranking (55) in February 1999 and represented Great Britain in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, as well as the Federation Cup and European Team Championships. Sam now works as a freelance tennis commentator and columnist.
Simon Reed
Simon’s career began with BBC Radio in the late Sixties when he worked for BBC Radio Sport, BBC World Service and BBC Radio London. From 1973, he was a presenter and reporter for Thames TV. Simon’s career as a tennis commentator began with Channel 4 in 1984, and he also free-lanced for Sky and Eurosport. In 1995, he became Head of Commentators for Eurosport specialising in tennis. In 2002, Simon commentated for BBC TV at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. He has commentated on the last ten championships for BBC TV.
Sue Barker
Former World No. 3 tennis player, French Open champion and Wimbledon semi-finalist, Sue has presented the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage since 1993.
One of BBC Sport's lead presenters, she has led the BBC’s coverage of world class events, including major tennis tournaments, Commonwealth Games, Summer and Winter Olympics including London 2012.
In addition, her credits also include hosting Grandstand and Sunday Grandstand, Sports Personality Of The Year and A Question Of Sport. Among her many accolades are the 1998 TRIC award for Sports Presenter/Reporter of the Year and the 2001 RTS sports presenter award.
Tim Henman
Tim Henman was one of Britain’s most successful male tennis players of the open era. He was Britain’s No. 1; reached four Wimbledon semi-finals and peaked at No. 4 in the ATP world rankings in a career that lasted 14 years, beginning in 1993 and lasting until his retirement from the sport in 2007.
Since his retirement Tim has been a member of BBC Wimbledon commentary team which he joined in 2008.
In the course of his tennis career Tim won a silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and played Davis Cup for Great Britain from the age of 19. He won 11 titles in the course of his career.
Off the court Tim was Chairman of the ATP Charities programme in 2000 and also founded his own charity that year called ‘Kids at Heart’.
His interests still include all sports and, in particular golf, where he plays off a scratch handicap.
Tracy Austin
Tracy Austin received her first tennis lesson at age two and appeared on the cover of World Tennis at four. After winning 25 national titles as a junior, Austin launched her professional career by winning the first tournament she entered (Filderstadt, Germany, 1978) as a pro. Triumphs over Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova produced two US Open crowns for Austin.
In 1978, she broke Navratilova’s 37-match winning streak and, in the 1979 Italian Open, she broke Evert’s 125-match clay court winning streak. Her incredibly consistent record earned her celebrity status and worldwide recognition. She became the youngest person to become No.1 in the world in 1980 at age 17. Tracy represented the USA on winning Federation Cup and Wightman Cup team. When forced to the side-lines in the mid-Eighties, she translated her on-court experience into a successful broadcasting career.
Virginia Wade
Virginia Wade is one of Britain’s greatest ever female tennis players. She was Wimbledon Champion, winning the title in 1977 - the tournament’s centenary year - and in the year Britain celebrated the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
She began her career in 1967 and was continuously ranked among the World’s top 10 players for the next 12 years until 1979. She was also ranked as Britain’s No. 1 female player for 10 years.
Virginia was named 1977's "Player of the Year" by the Women's Tennis Association. Her achievements on court and her continued involvement in tennis led to her becoming the first woman ever elected to the Wimbledon Committee in 1982. On July 15, 1989, Virginia became the 40th woman to be inducted into the prestigious International Tennis Hall of Fame.
In 1986, Virginia was honoured with the distinction of OBE.
Virginia has become one of the most respected tennis broadcasters in the world providing expert analysis of women's competition and is a regular member of the BBC commentary team.