While British tennis has always had its fair share of ups and downs, there are still players whose achievements should be recognised, particularly as they often had to come up against those who could put forward a case for being among the game’s greatest. Here is our list of our top male and female British tennis players of the open era, which began in 1968.
Top 5 British Tennis Players: Andy Murray
The man who became the first home champion at Wimbledon for 77 years has to go down as the greatest British player of all time. Andy Murray ended one of the most talked about records in British sport when he captured the Wimbledon title for the first time in 2013, a year after he had triumphed on Centre Court to win gold at the London Olympics, a victory he followed up by claiming a first Grand Salam at the US Open that September.
Another Wimbledon title came his way in 2016 when the Scot was able to successfully defend his Olympic crown in Rio, and these were remarkable achievements as he had to do it while competing against Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who won a galaxy of Grand Slams between them. Many would argue that Murray is the greatest sportsman of all time, let alone our greatest tennis player.
British Tennis Players: Virginia Wade
Virginia Wade brought joy to SW19 in 1977 when she won her third Grand Slam by beating Betty Stover. Her success came after she won the 1968 US Open and 1972 Australian Open, and she also claimed four Grand Slam doubles titles playing with Australian Margaret Court. Three of those successes all came in 1973 when the pair won the Australian, French and US titles.
British Tennis Players: Tim Henman
Tim Henman was the nearly man of British tennis around the turn of the Millennium as he fell in six Grand Slam semi-finals, four of which came at Wimbledon in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002. That great success eluded him but he did win 11 ATP Tour titles, including the 2003 Paris Masters, but he was frustrated in two last-four Grand Slam clashes the following year, losing to Argentina’s Guillermo Coria in Paris and Roger Federer at Flushing Meadows.
British Tennis Players: Sue Barker
Better known as a TV presenter, Sue Barker was a great tennis player who celebrated her finest hour when she beat Czechoslovakia’s Renata Tomanova to win the 1976 French Open. Her hopes of securing an all-British final against Wade a year later at Wimbledon were dashed when she lost her semi-final against Betty Stover, but the former A Question of Sport supremo won 15 tournaments on the WTA Tour, having reached 31 finals between 1974 and 1981.
British Tennis Players: Johanna Konta
Emma Radacanu won the 2021 US Open out of the blue, but her place in the top five is taken by Johanna Konta who was a consistent force a few years earlier. Konta became the first British woman to reach the WImbledon semi-finals for almost 40 years in 2017, having grabbed a last-four spot at the previous year’s Australian Open. She repeated that at the French Open in 2019, where she was defeated by Marketa Vandrousova, and in all won four WTA titles.
By James Mason
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