British Tennis Champion, Annabel Croft retired from professional tennis at the age of twenty-one.
Annabel was born in London and raised in Kent where she learnt to play tennis at the age of nine. She soon emerged as a player of immense promise and within three years had become the National Champion at under 12yrs, 14yrs and 16 yrs age groups.
At 15, she was the youngest Briton to play senior Wimbledon for nearly 100 years. In 1984 she became junior Wimbledon Champion as well as Junior Australian Open Champion. A year later she collected her first senior tournament trophy in San Diego.
Annabel’s charm and entertaining playing style had made her a great favourite with the crowds, both at live tennis events and on television and these attributes transferred naturally to the world of media.
Annabel’s charm and entertaining playing style had made her a great favourite with the crowds, both at live tennis events and on television and these attributes transferred naturally to the world of media.
Immediately after her retirement, Annabel developed, and continues to enjoy, long term relationships with many of the leading broadcasters’ tennis output, both as an anchor, tennis reporter and as an all-round sports correspondent.
Annabel has developed a successful media career, initially as the face of Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt and ITV’s Interceptor. She has also taken part in a series of the award winning Filthy Rich and Homeless for BBC1, where she lived homeless on the streets of London for 9 days.
Annabel also hosted her own series, The Flying Picnic, for Granada and Sky Travel. Travelling around in an original DeHavilland Moth plane, she collected the ingredients from around Britain to recreate the famous household guru’s ‘Mrs Beeton’s Picnic for Forty’ which since airing has received record viewer ratings. Tapping into her passion of healthy and fun eating and cooking for family and friends, The Flying Picnic saw Annabel celebrate the quality of food Britain really has to offer.
In 2012 she presented the Olympic Tennis Coverage for BBC Radio 5. Her involvement in Tennis is at the highest level both on and off screen.
As a fit, healthy, glamorous mum-of-three, Annabel uses her position to raise awareness of the benefits of Homeopathy and Natural medicines, as well as child obesity in the UK and the issues and causes surrounding it.
Annabel is married to former America’s cup and Admiral’s cup yachtsman Mel Coleman. In 2009, they together launched the Annabel Croft Tennis Academy at the National Tennis Centre. They have two daughters named Amber Rose and Lily and a son, Charlie.
Annabel presents for BBC Radio 5 live and many world feeds for selected international Tennis events. Her main TV role is being the Tennis Anchor for International Eurosport covering the French and Australian Opens, as well as presenting and being a pundit on Amazon’s coverage of the US Open. For many years Annabel presented for Sky Sports coverage.
Every year, Annabel Croft plays an integral role in the coverage of Wimbledon, hosting Live@Wimbledon for 4 years for the Tournament hosts and its global Internet audience as well as BBC Radio 5 Live.
Annabel presents and commentates on the four Grand Slams – The Australian Open in Melbourne, The French Open in Paris for Eurosport, Wimbledon for BBC TV and Radio and The US Open in New York for Amazon Prime Video. Annabel presents as a presenter / pundit / commentator virtually every major tennis tournament throughout the year.
In 2018 Annabel was one of the main pundits for Sky Sports at the ATP World Tour Finals in November 2018 at the 02, London and for Amazon Prime Video in 2019. In 2019 Annabel also hosted the International Tennis Federation conference. In 2020 Annabel commentated and presented at the Australian Open in Melbourne for Eurosport.
In 2019, Annabel was one of the main pundits for Amazon Prime Video at the US Open and the ATP World Tour Finals in November at the 02, London and also hosted the International Tennis Federation conference. In 2020, Annabel commentated and presented at the Australian Open in Melbourne for Eurosport and signed a contract with Amazon Prime Video taking in major ATP and WTA events as a presenter and commentator including the recent ‘ Battle of the Brits. ’ Annabel will be presenting and commentating for Amazon for the 02 Finals in November.
Annabel continues presenting at all the major tournaments around the world for Amazon Prime Video, Eurosport and the BBC.
Annabel is excited to announce her Camper Van adventure on Instagram@vannabelcroft which will be travelling throughout the UK this Summer.
If you ever wanted to see a normal van converted into a luxurious Camper Van – watch out for this!!
Annabel presented live from Turin for Amazon in 2021 and 2022 at the ATP Finals, Annabel also presented and commentated at all the major Tennis tournaments for Amazon, BBC TV, 5 Live and Eurosport in 2022.
In May 2023 Annabel sadly lost her husband Mel, a professional yachtsman after a short illness from cancer.
Annabel commentated at the 2023 Australian Open, French Open, Eastbourne and Wimbledon on 5 Live.
At the 2023 Ladies and Men’s finals at Wimbledon, Annabel Croft did the on court interviews.
Annabel will be commentating live at the US Open for BBC TV.
In September Annabel will be swopping her tennis shoes for dancing shoes where she will be taking part in the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing.
