Career
Born and bred in Southampton, Chris Wilkinson has achieved much in the world of tennis. But it could have been very different as his first passion was football in which he excelled for Southampton and had trials for Aston Villa and Coventry. Wilkinson started his winning ways with tennis tournament success as a 10-year-old junior. From there Wilkinson went on to win national and overseas tournaments and represented Great Britain in the World Championships at all junior age groups.
On the main Tour Wilkinson played some of his best tennis at Wimbledon where he reached the 3rd round in Singles on four occasions and made the quarter finals of Doubles. Wilkinson had the privilege of playing on Centre and No. 1 court on many occasions. He will probably be best remembered for his Centre Court battle in 1993 against Stefan Edberg, in which he broke the champion's serve no less than seven times before faltering on his own and succumbing to defeat in three close sets. [1] His best win was over Goran Ivanišević in 1993 at Queen's. Wilkinson has recorded many notable wins over several top 20 world ranked players. Wimbledon continues to be a special place for the former British No. 1 and he is regularly invited to compete in the Gentleman's senior invitational event.
In 1993 Wilkinson achieved his ambition of becoming British No. 1 Singles player. He represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Wilkinson retired from the main tour in 1999 but kept up his competitive play in the following years and in 2005 became the British and world over-35 champion.
Wilkinson is still very much involved with the sport, working with the LTA as a National Performance Coach/captain for the 12 to 16-year-old boys. In February 2018, he was appointed as County Performance Manager for Hampshire and Isle of Wight LTA. [2]
Wilkinson also remains very busy in the media world, including TV commentating for Eurosport, ATP media and ITV4. He also has a regular column with ESPN. [3]
As for playing tennis, Wilkinson is regularly invited to exhibition events where he often plays with some of the all-time greats of the tennis world.
Wilkinson currently resides in Hampshire with his wife Amanda and their two daughters, Alice born in 1998 and Emily born in 2001.
In 1984 he featured in an advert shown in the UK and Ireland for Bisto gravy.
Timothy Henry Henman is a British former professional tennis player. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis. He was the first British man to reach the singles semifinals of Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the 1970s. Henman reached six major semifinals and won 15 career ATP Tour titles, including the 2003 Paris Masters. He also earned a 40–14 win-loss record with the Great Britain Davis Cup team.
John Patrick McEnroe Jr. is an American former professional tennis player known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court behavior, which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.
Jan Stefan Edberg is a Swedish former world No. 1 professional tennis player. A major practitioner of the serve-and-volley style of tennis, he won six Grand Slam singles titles and three Grand Slam men's doubles titles between 1985 and 1996. He is one of only two men in the Open Era to have been ranked world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, the other being John McEnroe. Edberg also won the Masters Grand Prix and was a part of the Swedish Davis Cup-winning team four times. In addition, he won four Masters Series titles, four Championship Series titles and the unofficial 1984 Olympic tournament, was ranked in the singles top 10 for ten successive years and ranked nine years in the top 5. After retirement, Edberg began coaching Roger Federer in January 2014, with this partnership ending in December 2015.
Olga Vasilyevna Morozova is a retired tennis player who competed for the Soviet Union. She was the runner-up in singles at the 1974 French Open and 1974 Wimbledon Championships and the first Soviet player to win a Grand Slam event. Her ground-breaking playing career combined with her distinguished coaching career has meant Morozova is often labelled the "Godmother of Russian tennis".
Aleksa Bogdanovic is a retired Serbian-born English tennis player and former UK no 2. On the professional tour, he won 9 Challenger titles and 4 Futures events, but never managed to break into the top 100. He also competed in 22 Grand Slam qualification draws, only managing to qualify one time for the main draw. He received a wildcard into the Wimbledon main draw eight consecutive years, but lost in the first round every time.
Brad Gilbert is an American former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1990, and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 18 four years prior. He won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics, and both a gold medal and a silver medal at the 1981 Maccabiah Games.
David Sherwood is a British tennis coach and retired tennis player. In his only live Davis Cup match, Sherwood played doubles with Andy Murray beating the Israeli World No 4 doubles team of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram,
Arvind Parmar is a former British professional tennis player whose career ran from 1997 to 2006. After retiring, he coached British junior No. 1, Ahmed El Menshawy. He also coached another British junior, James Marsalek.
Jonathan Marray is a former British tennis player and a Wimbledon Men's Doubles champion. Marray is a former top 20 doubles player, reaching a career high of world no. 15 in January 2013, mainly due to more regular appearances on the ATP World Tour, following his victory at Wimbledon 2012. He has also competed on the singles tour, reaching world no. 215 in April 2005, but was unable to continue his singles career, in part due to injuries.
Daniel Evans is a British professional tennis player from England. He has been ranked as high as world No. 21 in singles by the ATP, which he achieved on 7 August 2023. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 52 in doubles on 26 April 2021. In 2015, he formed part of the winning British Davis Cup team.
Jamie Baker is a retired British professional male tennis player, who was British No. 2 in 2008.
James Ward is a British former professional tennis player. He is a Davis Cup champion and former British No. 2.
Tara Shanice Moore is a Hong Kong-born British tennis player. She achieved career-high rankings by the WTA of 145 in singles and No. 77 in doubles. In her career, she won nine singles titles and 17 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.
John Edward Barrett, is a former tennis player, television commentator and author. He was born in Mill Hill, North West London, the son of Alfred Edward Barrett, a leaf tobacco merchant, and Margaret Helen Barrett. He had one sister, Irene Margaret Leppington (1925–2009), a research chemist. His father had the rare distinction of having played both for Leicester Tigers RFC as a wing three-quarter and for Leicester Fosse FC as a wing half.
Dominic Inglot is a British former professional tennis player and a Davis Cup champion. A doubles specialist; he made the final of twenty seven ATP World Tour events, winning fourteen, including the Citi Open and Swiss Indoors partnering Treat Huey and Franko Škugor, and also made the final of nine ATP Challenger Tour events winning six of them. He was a former British No. 1 in doubles. Also known as 'Dom the Bomb' due to his menacing serve.
Liam Tarquin Broady is a British professional tennis player who competes mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour. He reached a career high ranking of world No. 93 on 25 September 2023.
Jan Choinski is a German-born Polish-British tennis player who competes mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour. Choinski has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No. 126, achieved on 21 August 2023. Since 2019, he represents Great Britain.
Cameron Norrie is a British professional tennis player. He has reached career-high rankings of world No. 8 in singles and No. 117 in doubles. Norrie has won five ATP Tour singles titles, including a Masters 1000 title at the 2021 Indian Wells Masters, and one doubles title. He was the British No. 1 in men's singles from October 2021 to June 2024.
Gabriella Patricia Taylor is a British former tennis player.
Ryan Harold Peniston is a British tennis player from Essex. He has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 123, achieved in July 2022, and a doubles ranking of world No. 384 achieved in June 2022.
Great Britain 
