Mortimer, Angela

Angela Mortimer, a tall, sickly girl, started playing tennis only at the age of 15 and achieved further success not due to outstanding physical data, but due to patience, perseverance and a smart game. These qualities allowed her to develop into a versatile tennis player, in whose arsenal powerful blows from the back line (especially a striking blow with an open racket) were the main, but by no means the only weapon.

In 1953, Mortimer became a quarter-finalist at the Wimbledon tournament and for the first time joined the UK team in the Whiteman Cup - the traditional US-UK team match. Since that year, she has constantly been in the top ten of the strongest tennis players in the world for ten years, traditionally compiled at the end of the season by The Telegraph .

In 1955, Mortimer reached the first Grand Slam tournament finals at the French Championship and immediately won her first title, gaining the upper hand in a marathon match against the American Dorothy Head-Nod . The third, decisive set of the match ended with a score of 10-8 in favor of Mortimer. In the same year she added the title of the winner of the Wimbledon doubles tournament to her collection and finished the year in fourth place in the world women's tennis hierarchy. The following year, she hit the French championship final for the second time in a row, but she lost to the rising American tennis star Altea Gibson . This did not prevent her from finishing this season in fourth place in the list of The Telegraph.

The next successful year in the career of Mortimer was 1958 . She started with the finals of the Australian Championship in all three categories. She won the women's singles finals, where her rival was the hostess of the court, Lorraine Cohlan, and with her also lost in the finals in the women's doubles. The mixed doubles final , where her partner was compatriot Peter Newman , she also lost, although the British couple managed to snatch the first set from their Australian rivals. Later, Mortimer advanced to her first final of the Wimbledon singles tournament, but there again, like two years ago in France, Gibson lost.

In 1960, Mortimer brought the UK team a decisive point in the match with the US team for the Whiteman Cup, which ended with a score of 4-3 in favor of the British. In the decisive game, she defeated Janet Hopps . The following year, at 29, she advanced to her second final of the Wimbledon tournament, which for the first time in 47 years was purely British: Mortimer was confronted by 20-year-old compatriot Christine Truman . Mortimer, who at that moment had almost lost her hearing, later recalled that she had only heard the applause of the public. According to her, it allowed her to better concentrate and turn away from everything that could distract her ^[1] . She won this match, and then at the US Championship reached the semi-finals, where she lost to another young compatriot - Anne Haydon . At the end of the year she was put on the list of the best tennis players in the world in first place.

After 1961, Angela Mortimer underwent a stapedectomy , an operation to remove the stirrup , which greatly improved her hearing. However, success on the court has already begun to decline - in 1962, she last hit the list of the best tennis players in the world. Later she was engaged in coaching, from 1964 to 1970, occupying the post of captain of the British team in the Whiteman Cup. She was also captain of the UK national team in the Federation Cup , which she made her way to the World Group Final in 1967 ^[2] .

In 1967, Mortimer married the former player and captain of the British national team in the Davis Cup, John Barrett . She lives in London with her husband. In 1993, her name was included in the lists of the International Tennis Hall of Fame .

Singles (3 + 2)

Female doubles (1 + 1)

Mixed doubles (0 + 1)

• Angela Mortimer // Bud Collins' Tennis Encyclopedia / Bud Collins , Zander Hollander (Eds.). - Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press, 1997. - P. 482-483. - ISBN 1-57859-000-0 .

• Profile on the site of the International Tennis Hall of Fame (English)
• Performance statistics in Grand Slam finals on the Grand Slam History website (eng.)