{"id":153816,"date":"2025-09-19T01:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153816\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T01:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T01:12:10","slug":"she-is-the-two-time-junior-grand-slam-champion-who-retired-from-tennis-at-just-21-years-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/153816\/","title":{"rendered":"She is the two-time junior Grand Slam champion who retired from tennis at just 21 years old"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not every player goes on to fulfil the potential that they have shown as a junior.<\/p>\n

Every tennis fan knows about four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, but her sister was also a prospect before retiring<\/a> at a young age.<\/p>\n

Another big prospect who retired without fulfilling their potential was Laura Robson, with injury forcing her to retire at 27 years old<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, another former British number one retired at an even younger age than Robson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AnnabelPhoto by Visionhaus via Getty ImagesAnnabel Croft: The former two-time junior Grand Slam champion<\/p>\n

Annabel Croft<\/a> has created a career for herself as a broadcaster and commentator, but not many people know about her time as a tennis player.<\/p>\n

Born in Kent, Croft was a very promising young British player and she did not take long to show her promise on the world stage.<\/p>\n

Croft\u2019s breakout season came in 1984, when she won the junior titles at both the Australian Open<\/a> and her home Grand Slam of Wimbledon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since the junior Grand Slam tournaments began in 1930, Croft is the only British girl to win two titles in the same calendar year.<\/p>\n

It was not just on the junior stage that Croft impressed that year, as she also reached the third round of the women\u2019s singles draw at Wimbledon as a 17-year-old.<\/p>\n

The only person to beat Croft at Wimbledon that year was now 18-time Grand Slam champion Chris Evert<\/a>, who would go on to reach the final.<\/p>\n

\"AdvertPhoto by Nigel Wright\/Mirrorpix via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Croft\u2019s success would continue into 1985, where she would win her first WTA<\/a> title at the San Diego Open, which helped her reach a career-high ranking of world number 24 at the end of that year.<\/p>\n

From the outside, everything appeared to be going well for Croft, but just three years later she was no longer a professional tennis player.<\/p>\n

Why did Annabel Croft retire from tennis at 21 years old?<\/p>\n

In 1988, Croft would officially retire from professional tennis at just 21 years of age.<\/p>\n

It was unclear as to why Croft had retired at the time, but in an interview with The Scotsman<\/a> in 2017, she revealed exactly what had led to the decision.<\/p>\n

Croft explained that she had lost her love for playing on the WTA Tour, and revealed that those feelings were reinstated after a conversation with seven-time Grand Slam singles champion John Newcombe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just woke up one day and decided: \u2018I don\u2019t want to do this anymore,’\u201d said Croft. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get on the next plane to the next tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis\u00a0had been my life since I was really young \u2013 nine years old. All I\u2019d ever done was wake up and get into a tracksuit. I needed to put on normal clothes in the mornings and not worry about my backhand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really unhappy. I wasn\u2019t enjoying tennis at all. I remember my mum saying to me: \u2018Your heart\u2019s not in this anymore, is it?\u2019 That was a relief. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen [Australian great] John Newcombe gave me a heart-to-heart. He told me I needed to get away to decide whether I really wanted to continue in the game. I already pretty much knew I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Croft\u2019s desire to be a professional tennis player had dwindled, it appears her love for the sport has not.<\/p>\n

Over 37 years on from her retirement, Croft comments on all the Grand Slams<\/a> as a pundit for Sky Sports and BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

The now 59-year-old also conducts some of the on-court interviews at the Wimbledon Championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not every player goes on to fulfil the potential that they have shown as a junior. Every tennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[70726,49,48,82,593,4306],"class_list":{"0":"post-153816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-annabel-croft","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}