5 minute read
CELEBRITY INTERVIEW
SUE BARKER CALLING THE SHOTS
WHEN Sue Barker retired as a TV presenter at Wimbledon this Summer the tears came from more than just her – the nation felt that we had lost something special.
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Her great success on TV generally, although especially her associations with the annual tennis-fest at SW19, make us easily forget, however, just what a talented and successful tennis player Sue was. At one time in her career, she was ranked No.3 in the world.
Her tennis career started where she was born and brought up in Paignton, Devon. She was educated at a convent school and at the age of 10 in 1966 she was picked as one of two girls to receive free coaching from week-known tennis coach Arthur Roberts.
He had coached Angela Mortimer – the former world No.1 female tennis player – and was impressed with the slight blonde girl. In particular, he was impressed by her forehand, and when the period of the free coaching finished, he continued to coach her. Roberts entered Sue, then in her teens, into tournaments abroad, giving her a one-way ticket and instructing her to win enough to pay for her ticket home! Roberts did, though, prove to be a supportive mentor and highly influential throughout her tennis career.
At just 16, young Sue was No.21 in the LTA rankings and Roberts advised her to move to America for to improve her development. Here, she was signed by Mark McCormack’s International Management Group (IMG).
She won her first top-level singles title in 1975, along with three additional titles, and reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open.
She won the German Open the following year and had the biggest victory of her career in 1976 when she won the French Open at the age of 20.
In 1977, Sue won two singles’ titles in San Francisco and Dallas and beat Martina Navratilova to reach the final of the Virginia Slims Tour Championships, where she lost in three sets to Chris Evert.
That year, she reached the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Centenary Championships, looking set to meet fellow Brit Virginia Wade in the landmark final. Unfortunately, she unexpectedly lost her semi to Betty Stove of the Netherlands who in turn lost to Wade.
After this disappointment, Sue continued her tennis career but was plagued by injuries and in 1978 her ranking dropped to world No.24. However, she still won three singles’ titles and reached three other finals in 1979 and won the final title of her singles’ career in 1980 at the Brighton International.
She won her last doubles’ title in 1982 at Cincinnati and played her last professional match in 1984 when injuries forced her to retire from tennis. In all, she had won 15 singles’ titles and 12 doubles’ titles with notable wins over famous players including Chris Evert, Billie Jean King Rosie Casals and Pam Shriver.
After a short break – and to the surprise of some tennis luminaries like Martina Navratilova who, on Sue’s retirement this year, said how shy she had been then – she began a broadcasting career in Australia.
Fortunately for the UK, in 1993 the BBC recognised both her broadcasting skills and her current tennis knowledge.
The following year, she started presenting coverage from the Wimbledon tennis championships, Unsurprisingly, her depth of knowledge about the game and about the life of touring tennis players and her natural warmth brought a fresh perspective to the coverage.
She knew so many of the players personally – many obviously liked her and chatted happily with such an old friend and viewers benefitted from such an informed, informal approach. She asked pertinent questions that added to viewers’ understanding of individuals and the game and made Wimbledon coverage more accessible and enjoyable.
John McEnroe put it beautifully succinctly on her final day when he told a tearful Sue that Wimbledon “just wouldn’t be the same anymore” without her.
Sue’s sunny smile and ready sense of humour, alongside her professionalism, also took her into other areas of broadcasting. She became the presenter of BBC’s very popular programme A Question of Sport and there was an outcry when she was replaced last year. Many viewers are still lobbying for her return.
She was awarded the MBE in 2000 for services to tennis and broadcasting and the OBE in 2016 for her services to sport, broadcasting and charity.
Sue has been happily married to landscape gardener and former policeman Lance Tankard since 1988 and the couple live in Stanton, Gloucestershire. However, before she met Lance, Sue was in a relationship with famous Australian golfer Greg Norman. But it was when she got together with singer Cliff Richard that the British media went wild.
In her just published autobiography, Calling the Shots, she recalled how the relationship started when she met Hank Marvin and Brian Bennett from his backing group who were on tour and staying at her hotel when she was playing in Brighton.
She got them tickets to her match. Cliff, a huge tennis fan, got her number from them and called her asking her to go to the Shadows’ concert with him.
This was the start of a relationship that must have been hard to maintain for both of them. Sue was playing on the tennis circuit around the world and Cliff was fulfilling his own tour engagements in different countries.
The British press loved this romantic story of two famous names linked but the relationship only lasted a matter of months. As Sue states in her book:
The long ago romance, though, has always struck a chord in the public psyche and there is no doubt there will be questions about her and Cliff when she tours the UK during October talking about her career and life in and out of tennis.
