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Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wimbledon coverage 2005
Biographies
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Sue Barker
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A former world number three tennis player, French Open champion and Wimbledon
semi-finalist, Sue started work as a sports broadcaster with Australia's
Channel 7 in 1985. She then joined BSB in 1990 and later moved to Sky
Sports.
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She made her Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport television debut co-presenting the evening highlights programme from Wimbledon 93 with Harry Carpenter.
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Since then she has gained a wealth of experience presenting world class competitions, including coverage of other major tennis tournaments, Summer and Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, The Grand National, The Derby, World and European Skating Championships, and racing from Longchamp.
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Sue has also hosted Sunday Grandstand and has worked on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Television documentary Chalk Flew Up, a history of Wimbledon's Number One Court which made its final appearance during Wimbledon 95.
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Her credits also include hosting Sports Review of the Year and A Question of Sport.
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Among her many accolades are the 1998 TRIC award for Sports Presenter/Reporter of the Year.
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John Inverdale
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John began his broadcasting career with Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Lincolnshire in 1982.
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He joined Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Sport in 1985, working for Radio 4's Today programme and on Radio 2 sports output before joining Radio 5 in 1988 as presenter of its flagship sports programme, Sport on Five.
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John has presented Radio Five Live's coverage of many major sports events including Wimbledon Championships, Olympic Games and World Cups (football and rugby).
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He also works extensively on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport's television output, hosting Rugby Special, Sunday Grandstand and Wimbledon.
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He was named Sony Broadcaster of the Year in 1997 for his Five Live drivetime show, and hosts Any Sporting Questions.
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Tony Adamson
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Tony Adamson gained his first experience in broadcasting whilst working for the Forces Broadcasting Service.
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Having worked as a junior newspaper journalist before joining Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Oxford in 1970 as sports reporter, Tony subsequently became sports editor and on joining the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport department in London, Tony presented programmes such as Sport on Two and Sport on Four.
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He spent six years working on tennis full-time and has been covering Wimbledon for 22 years.
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John Alexander
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Australian John Alexander has been a long time member of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's tennis commentary team.
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John is best known for representing his country 11 times in the Davis Cup.
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Chris Bailey
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Chris is perhaps best remembered for his epic second round encounter at Wimbledon in 1993 against fifth seed Goran Ivanisevic, which he lost 9-7 in the fifth set.
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Born in April 1968 in Norwich, Chris reached the quarter-finals at Queen's in 1989 en route to a career-high world ranking of 126.
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A former national under-12s champion (1980) and Wimbledon junior quarter-finalist in 1986, he retired because of injury in 1994.
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Clare Balding
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A former leading amateur flat jockey and champion lady rider, Clare's speciality is horse racing but she also covers a wide variety of other sports and assignments.
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She began her Â鶹ԼÅÄ career with Radio Five Live in 1993, presenting the racing bulletin on Danny Baker's Morning Edition.
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Clare was appointed as Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport's television racing presenter in December 1997 following the retirement of Julian Wilson.
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She also presents Any Sporting Questions? with John Inverdale on Five Live.
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John Barrett
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John succeeded the late Dan Maskell as Â鶹ԼÅÄ Television's 'voice of tennis'.
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A former British number five, he played in every Wimbledon Championships between 1950 and 1970 and represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup in 1956 and 1957.
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A highly-respected tennis coach and administrator, John commentated on his first Wimbledon for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Television in 1971.
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He has also worked for TV networks in Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and America, as tennis correspondent for the Financial Times, and is the author of many books on the game.
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Boris Becker
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Wimbledon crowd favourite Boris Becker joined the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport commentary team for the 2002 Championships.
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Born in 1967, in Leimen, Germany, Boris became the youngest man to win Wimbledon at 17 years 7 months when he defeated Kevin Curren in 1985.
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Over his career he won 49 ATP singles titles including six Grand Slam titles. He became world number one for the first time after victory at the Australian Open in 1991.
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Iain Carter
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Iain, Radio Five Live's golf correspondent, reports on Wimbledon and other major tennis tournaments throughout the year.
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He joined the Â鶹ԼÅÄ in 1988 as Sports Producer at Radio Leicester, having previously worked as an agency news reporter and news reporter for Radio Trent.
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Following that he joined Â鶹ԼÅÄ World Service sport and covered cricket tours in the West Indies, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
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In 2002, Iain won the ATP Media Excellence Award.
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Pat Cash
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Pat was a popular winner of the Men's Singles title at Wimbledon in 1987, famously climbing through the seats on Centre Court to embrace his family after beating Ivan Lendl in straight sets.
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Earlier that year, he lost a tough five-setter to Stefan Edberg in the final of the Australian Open.
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Born in Melbourne in May 1965, he turned pro in 1982 and reached his highest ranking of World number four in 1988.
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In 1984, he became the youngest player to compete in the Davis Cup Final, helping Australia to defeat Sweden 3-2.
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Andrew Castle
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A former British number one singles and doubles tennis champion, Andrew became a professional tennis player in 1986 after completing a marketing degree in America.
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He was a member of the UK's Olympic teams in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992, and also part of the British teams for the Davis and European Cups.
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Andrew Castle is a regular presenter on GMTV.
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Matt Chilton
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Matt joined the Â鶹ԼÅÄ in 1997 when he joined the Ski Sunday team.
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He has worked on the programme every season since joining, but in 2001 he joined the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's Bafta award-winning interactive television team to cover the Wimbledon Championships.
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He has also branched into other sports - during Sydney 2000, he became the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's main commentator for the beach volleyball, a new sport in the Olympics.
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Jimmy Connors
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Jimmy Connors won Wimbledon twice (1974 and 1982), the Australian Open (1974) and the US Open five times (1974, 1976, 1978, 1982 and 1983).
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He has played more tournaments (401) than any other male pro. He was born in Illinois, USA in September 1952.
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Mark Cox
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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.
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In the semi-final against Australia he partnered David Lloyd to victory in the deciding doubles rubber.
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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.
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He was born in Leicester in July 1943.
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Annabel Croft
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After taking up tennis at the age of nine, Annabel became, at 15, the youngest Briton to play at Wimbledon for nearly 100 years.
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In 1984, she was a Wimbledon Junior Champion and a year later picked up her first senior tournament trophy in San Diego.
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Annabel retired from the international circuit at 21, having established herself as British number one, ranked in the world's top 25.
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She has since carved a career in entertainment, particularly on TV, has also worked as a tennis summariser for Eurosport, and was a contestant in Â鶹ԼÅÄ's Superstars in 2003.
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Annabel married former America's Cup yachtsman Mel Coleman in 1993, and the couple have three children.
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Barry Davies
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One of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's most versatile commentators, Barry joined Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio in 1963 after leaving the Army.
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He was part of ITV's commentary team for the 1966 World Cup Finals and reported for ITV on the 1968 Olympics.
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Barry rejoined the Â鶹ԼÅÄ in 1969 and has worked on a succession of World Cups, Summer and Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games, plus numerous Wimbledon Championships and Boat Races.
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Barry went freelance at the end of 2004 and continues to work for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ and other broadcasters.
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Jo Durie
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Former British number one Jo reached a world ranking of five in 1983.
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She first played at Wimbledon in 1977, losing in the first round to eventual champion Virginia Wade, and made her final appearance at the Championships in 1995, retiring after 18 years on the professional circuit.
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Jo won seven national titles, reached the ladies' singles quarter-finals of Wimbledon and, with Jeremy Bates, took the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1987 and at the Australian Open in 1991.
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Peter Fleming
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Peter teamed up with John McEnroe to form the most formidable doubles partnership in the men's game during the Eighties.
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The pair won the Wimbledon men's doubles title in 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1984 and took the US Open doubles crown in 1979, 1981 and 1983.
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In total, Fleming and McEnroe took 57 doubles titles.
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Ann Jones
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Ann is one of Britain's most successful tennis players.
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Wimbledon Ladies' champion in 1969 and the beaten finalist in 1967, she was also a semi-finalist on a further six occasions and Mixed Doubles champion (with Fred Stolle) in 1969.
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She won the French Open in 1961 and 1966, reaching the final a further three times, and was twice a finalist at the US Championships.
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A table tennis international between 1953 and 1959, Birmingham-born Ann began commentating for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ in 1970 and is an experienced tennis administrator.
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John Lloyd
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In reaching the final of the 1977 Australian Open, John Lloyd became the first Englishman to reach a singles final of a Grand Slam in the open era.
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In the following year he achieved his highest ranking when he finished at number 21.
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That year, John led an inspired British team to its most recent Davis Cup Final where they were defeated by the US.
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During his career he compiled three Grand Slam titles in mixed doubles, all with partner Wendy Turnbull, including back-to-back victories at Wimbledon in 1983 and 1984.
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He now continues to provide the mix of class and competitive fire that has made him one of the most popular players on the senior circuit.
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John McEnroe
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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.
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He asserted his mastery on the professional circuit soon after, with three successive US Open Championships, in 1979, 1980 and 1981.
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He ended 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.
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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.
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In addition to his singles achievements, John dominated the field as a doubles player.
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With longtime partner Peter Fleming, John earned four Wimbledon titles and three US Open titles; Masters titles seven years in a row; and over 40 other doubles titles.
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John represented the United States in Davis Cup competition for many years, establishing the record for the most US Davis Cup wins (39 singles and 15 doubles).
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David Mercer
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Swansea-born David entered sports broadcasting as a freelance via Â鶹ԼÅÄ Wales in 1979 and joined Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Sport in London on a full-time basis in 1984.
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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.
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David, a former solicitor, was Welsh Junior Doubles champion in 1968, captained the tennis team at Nottingham University in 1969 and umpired the Wimbledon Men's Singles Final in 1984.
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Simon Reed
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Simon's career began with Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio in the late Sixties when he worked for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Sport, Â鶹ԼÅÄ World Service and Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio London.
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From 1973, he was a presenter and reporter for Thames TV.
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Simon's career as a tennis commentator began with Channel 4 in 1984, and he also freelanced for Sky and Eurosport.
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In 1995, he became Head of Commentators for Eurosport, specialising in tennis.
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In 2002, Simon commentated for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Television at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
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He has commentated on the last four Wimbledon Championships for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Television.
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Michael Stich
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Michael began playing tennis aged six and won the German national junior singles title in 1986.
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His brilliant showing at Wimbledon in 1991 saw him beat Jim Courier, defending Wimbledon champ Edberg and three-times winner Boris Becker in consecutive rounds for the title.
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That year, he posted a 13-match winning streak which included reaching the quarter-finals at the US Open and winning titles in Stuttgart, Schenectady and Vienna.
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He also played the most singles and doubles on the tour - 149 matches.
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Other career highlights include leading his country to the Davis Cup title against Australia in 1993, for the first time since 1989, and finishing as German number one for the first time.
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Michael served on the ATP Tour Player Council in 1991 and has an overall playing record of 35-11 (21-9 in singles).
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He began the Michael Stich Foundation in November 1994 to help HIV-positive children in Germany.
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Bill Threlfall
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Former Fleet Air Arm pilot Bill began his commentary career with ITV, working for Thames and LWT.
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He then worked for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio before switching to Â鶹ԼÅÄ Television in 1974.
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As a player, he won a record eight Royal Navy titles, appeared at Wimbledon in the Fifties and represented England at international level.
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Bill began coaching in Italy in 1967 and for the last 25 years has coached at London's Hurlingham Club.
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A five-times winner of the National Veterans Championship, he has played for Great Britain in veterans competitions many times.
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Virginia Wade
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Virginia's victory over Betty Stove in the 1977 Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Final during the Queen's Silver Jubilee remains one of the tournament's most memorable triumphs.
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Born in Bournemouth in July 1945, her career also included winning the US Open in 1968, the Australian and Italian Opens in 1972, and four Grand Slam doubles titles.
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Awarded the OBE in 1986, she has worked as a tennis commentator for the Â鶹ԼÅÄ since 1981.
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