The amateur years
Great Britain · born Plymouth, 1932 · died 2025 · Wimbledon champion 1961 · Australian champion 1958
All playersBack to the rankings
4-6, 6-4, 7-5
1961 Wimbledon final against Christine Truman
24
Years since a British women's champion
3
Major singles titles, 1955 to 1961
4-3
Wightman Cup win at Wimbledon, 1960
Born in Plymouth in 1932, Mortimer learned the game in Torquay under the coach Arthur Roberts. She won three major singles titles: the French Championships in 1955, the Australian Championships in 1958 and Wimbledon in 1961, when she was ranked world No. 1. Illness kept her from her best for two seasons after 1956 and left her partially deaf. She played in the British team that won the Wightman Cup in 1960, captained the Wightman Cup side from 1964 to 1970, and led Great Britain to the Federation Cup final in 1967 as captain. She published an autobiography, My Waiting Game, in 1962, married the player and broadcaster John Barrett in 1967 and was appointed MBE the same year. She entered the Hall of Fame in 1993 and died in London in 2025, aged 93.
| Major singles titles | 2: Wimbledon (1961); Australian (1958) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 1: Wimbledon 1958 |
| Other grass singles titles | 7: Welsh Championships 5 (1951, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960); Irish Championships (1953); Queensland Championships (1957) |
| Major doubles titles | 1 doubles (Wimbledon 1) |
| Wimbledon 1961 final | Seeded seventh, beat Christine Truman 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 from a set and a break down; the last all-British final at Wimbledon to date |
| Wimbledon 1958 final | Lost to Althea Gibson 6-8, 2-6 |
| Wimbledon doubles | 1955 with Anne Shilcock, beating Shirley Bloomer and Pat Ward 7-5, 6-1 |
| Australian 1958 | Beat Lorraine Coghlan 6-3, 6-4 in the final, and reached the doubles and mixed finals |
| Wightman Cup | 1960: member of the British team that beat the United States 4-3 at Wimbledon. Captain from 1964 to 1970, winning in 1968 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Women's doubles | with Anne Shilcock |
| 1961 | Women's singles | |
| Welsh Championships | ||
| 1951 | Women's singles†| |
| 1957 | Women's singles†| |
| 1958 | Women's singles†| |
| 1959 | Women's singles†| |
| 1960 | Women's singles†| |
| Surrey Championships (Surbiton) | ||
| 1960 | Women's singles†| |
| 1962 | Women's singles†| |
| Queensland Championships | ||
| 1957 | Women's singles†| |
| Australian Championships | ||
| 1958 | Women's singles | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"When I hear players say they need to hear the ball, I smile."
The person behind the player.
Torquay, about 1947
At 15 she went to a session run by the coach Arthur Roberts. "You don't have a clue how to hit the ball," he told her. "Go home and forget about tennis." She came back a year later. He pointed her to a wall: "Hit against that. You can't do much harm there." Roberts became her coach and mentor.
Source: inklParis 1955
Deep in a long French final in the heat, she heard the umpire call for a brandy for Dorothy Knode. Knowing her opponent was struggling too gave her new heart, and she won 2-6, 7-5, 10-8. She then missed the French federation's champagne party in her honour: she had gone to bed exhausted.
Source: inklWimbledon 1961 · Final
Christine Truman led 6-4, 4-3, 30-40 on Mortimer's serve in the final. Then she took a heavy fall and lost her rhythm, and Mortimer came through 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 to become the first British women's champion since 1937. It was the last Wimbledon final between two British players.
Source: inklWimbledon 1961
She discovered she was going deaf only after an illness, and realised then why she had been able to concentrate so hard on court. "I could hear the applause of the crowd, but not much else," she said. "I think it helped me concentrate, shutting out distractions."
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameThe 1950s
She always played in shorts, never in a dress. When the designer Teddy Tinling offered to make dresses for her, she turned him down, so he designed a pair of shorts for her instead. Years later she went to work for him, joining his staff.
Source: WikipediaLondon 1967
In 1967 she married John Barrett, the former British Davis Cup captain who became a long-serving BBC Wimbledon commentator. Her obituary described a marriage of total harmony. Both were later elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame: she in 1993, he in 2014.
Source: inklFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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