Angela Mortimer

Full name: Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer
Alias: Mrs J.E.Barrett
Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer-Barrett

Died
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Bio	Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer Barrett was a former World No. 1 British female tennis player. She was born in Plymouth, Devon, England. She was married to the retired player and the veteran BBC commentator John Barrett. Mortimer won three major singles titles: the 1955 French Championships, the 1958 Australian Championships and 1961 Wimbledon Championships when she was 29 years old and partially deaf. Mortimer teamed with Anne Shilcock to win the women's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1955. That was Mortimer's only career Grand Slam women's doubles title. She teamed with Coghlan to reach the women's doubles final at the 1958 Australian Championships. Mortimer and Peter Newman reached the mixed doubles final at the 1958 Australian Championships. That was her only career Grand Slam mixed doubles final. According to Lance Tingay of the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Mortimer was ranked in the world top ten from 1953 through 1956 and from 1958 through 1962, reaching a career high of World No. 1 in those rankings in 1961. Mortimer reached the quarterfinals of the US National Championships, then lost to second seed Doris Hart. At Wimbledon in 1953, seeded no. 5, she reached the quarterfinals, losing to Dorothy Knode. She also reached the quarterfinals in 1954, 1956 (losing to countrywoman Pat Ward Hales), 1959 (when she was seeded no. 2 but lost to Sandra Reynolds), and 1960 (losing to champion Maria Bueno). At Wimbledon in 1958, unseeded, she beat former champion Margaret Osborne duPont in the quarterfinals, then French champion Zsuzsa Körmöczy in the semifinals, and lost the final against the defending champion Althea Gibson in straight sets. In 1961, she won the title, defeating top-seeded Sandra Reynolds in the semifinals and then Christine Truman in the final in three sets, making her the first British winner of the women's title since Dorothy Round in 1937. Not fully fit in 1962, she lost to eventual finalist Vera Suková in the fourth round. In 1955, she was the first British woman since 1937 to win a major tournament when she defeated Dorothy Knode in the final of the French Championships. During the long final set, she has said that she was given new heart when she heard her opponent asking for a brandy on court. Defending her title the following year, she reached the final, losing to Althea Gibson in two sets. During this year, she contracted amoebic dysentery in Egypt and did not returning to full form until 1958. She won the Australian title in 1958 while still recuperating, defeating Lorraine Coghlan in the final. Her best result in the U.S. Championships was in 1961 when she reached the semifinals, losing to Ann Haydon. She made her farewell in the Torquay Open Lawn Tennis Tournament of 1962, beating Ann Haydon-Jones in the final. A wily tactician with a limitless supply of determination, Angela Mortimer became one of the few women from Great Britain to win Wimbledon during the twentieth century. Her triumph on the fabled Centre Court in 1961 was entirely well received by an appreciative public as she prevailed in a nerve wracking final against compatriot Christine Truman. Despite having a significant hearing problem that left her partially deaf, Mortimer still managed to take three of the four majors in singles. She went on to serve as captain of the British Wightman and Fed Cup squads. Her game was played mainly from the baseline, as described in her tennis autobiography My Waiting Game. She always played in shorts, refusing designer Teddy Tinling's offer to design dresses for her. Ultimately, he designed shorts, and later she joined his staff. Mortimer was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993. Mortimer was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Lawn Tennis in the 1967 New Year Honours. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993, joined by her husband John Barrett in 2014. The only other married couple in the Hall is Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi. In 2004 Mortimer was one of five British Wimbledon women's singles champions honoured by a bust unveiled outside Centre Court. The busts were sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley in bronze. On July 27, 2014, she received the Freedom of the Borough of Merton. Following the death of Shirley Fry in 2021, Mortimer became the oldest Wimbledon ladies singles champion. Mortimer died from cancer in London on 25 August 2025, at the age of 93, survived by her husband John and their children, Michael and Sarah Jane.
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Tournament	AO	RG	W	US	Win-Loss
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		All-time					Amateur era					Open Era
		Total	A	R	W	U	Total	A	R	W	U	Total	A	R	W	U
1	GS Appearances	Subscribe now This information and data is not available because you are not our subscriber yet. Please click here and get full access to the entire database!
2	GS Matches
3	GS Appearances Representing The Same Nation
4	Represented different nations
5	Years Between 2 GS Appearances
6	Years Between The First And Last GS Appearance
7	Decades Between The First And Last GS Appearance
8	GS Final Appearances
9	GS Final Appearances Representing The Same Nation
10	Represented different nations in the GS Finals
11	Years Between 2 GS Final Appearances
12	Years Between The First And Last GS Final Appearance
13	Decades Between The First And Last GS Final Appearance
14	GS Titles