Annabel Croft
| Fact title | Fact data |
|---|---|
| Age |
57
|
| Profession |
Tennis Champion & Presenter
|
| Pro |
Meet Annabel Croft
Annabel Croft's ready to shoot her shot on the Strictly dance floor
Picking up tennis at the age of nine, Annabel Croft soon emerged as a player with great potential. After three years of training, she became the under 12s National Champion and went on to achieve the same title for the 14 and 16 year old age groups.β€―Making history, at 15 years old, she became the youngest Briton ever to play senior Wimbledon for nearly 100 years.
By 1984, Annabel became Junior Wimbledon Champion in the Girls competition, as well as the Junior Australian Open Champion and a year later in 1985, she collected her first senior tournament trophy at the Virginia Slims of San Diego tournament. At 18 years old, she had beat the far more experienced Wendy Turnbull in the final and was ranked as the number one player in Great Britain, and by the end of the year she had climbed as high as number 21 in the world rankings.
Playing for Great Britain in the Federation Cup from 1985 to 1987, she won the event in 1986, in addition to, competing in Wightman Cup from 1983 to 1986, the European Cup in 1986, the Maureen Connolly Cup in 1983 and all four major grand slam events between 1983 to 1988.
At the age of 21, Annabel made the decision to retire from playing tennis professionally and immediately after her retirement, she became the new face of Channel 4’s prime time show Treasure Hunt, which she followed up with her own show on ITV, Interceptor.
In 2003, Annabel competed in a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ revival of the sports competition programme, Superstars, where she channelled her competitive streak to win the archery event and kayaking event; coming third in the series overall, she lost out on the top position by just half a point.
In the following years she’s appeared on The Pyramid Game, Win, Lose or Draw! and Celebrity Squares. Not straying far from tennis, she quickly forged a career in sport broadcasting. Annabel presents, commentates and serves as a pundit for many global broadcasters for virtually every major tennis tournament throughout the year, including Grand Slam events.
And in 2023,β€―she took on the prestigious role of conducting the post-match interviews on Wimbledon’s centre court after the Ladies and Men’s finals, where she has interviewed the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Markéta Vondroušová and Ons Jabeur.
Now she’s got her sights set on lifting up another trophy. The Strictly Glitterball!
