This film is part of Free

Interview with Angela Mortimer

Winner of the Wimbledon Ladies Championship and world number one talks about her success

Sport 1961 4 mins

From the collection of:

Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

At the time of this interview, Angela Mortimer was world number one and had won Wimbledon having beaten fellow Brit Christine Truman Janes 4-6 6-4 7-5. Angela was born in Plymouth in Devon and began playing tennis at the age of fifteen. Her career took off in the early fifties after she had teamed up with coach Arthur Roberts in Torquay. She won two other Grand Slam titles, the French Open in 1955 and the Australian Open in 1958, the same year she was a runner up at Wimbledon.

Angela was ranked in the top ten in the world for almost a decade. The Championships at Wimbledon is one of four prestigious Grand Slam tournaments for tennis and has been held at the All England Club since 1877. Unlike the Australian, US and French Open Championships, it is played on grass. Angela married the former tennis player turned sports commentator John Barrett. John and Angela both made it into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.