{"id":936606,"date":"2026-10-17T16:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/936606\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T16:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:18:14","slug":"in-memoriam-penny-moor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/936606\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Penny Moor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WTA is mourning the death at age 75 of Penelope \u2018Penny\u2019 Moor, who played professional tennis in the early years of the Open Era and was a founding member of the WTA in 1973. Moor passed away on October 8 at her home in Devon, England, with dear friends in her presence. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Born in Exeter on July 7, 1951, Moor\u2019s potential was first spotted by a coach at a holiday tennis camp. After matriculating from boarding school \u2013 her parents were innkeepers who worked difficult hours \u2013 the young Penny moved to London to join a national training squad alongside contemporaries including Corinne Molesworth and Jill Cooper.<\/p>\n

A rangy lefthander who felt most comfortable at the net, Moor understood her place in the scheme of things at a time when Virginia Wade was the undisputed queen of British tennis. When the trailblazing promoter Gladys Heldman invited her to join the nascent Virginia Slims Circuit in 1972, the young Brit jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought it was going to be a bit stagnant for me in the U.K., that I would continue to struggle,\u201d Moor told wtatennis.com in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just didn\u2019t receive the same kind of encouragement here. Even though I was lower down the ranks, Gladys was just so positive, welcoming and protective. You can do it, come on out! I was inspired by her dedication and drive\u2026 it was just mind-blowing to be in her orbit.<\/p>\n

\"WTA<\/p>\n

\n

Penny Moor (second row, center) and Trish Bostrom pose with kids from the Elena Baltacha Foundation during the 2023 WTA 50 Media Event London. (Jimmie48\/WTA)\n <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to experience America, and I got in at a pretty amazing time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She most certainly did. Suddenly, Moor was being dressed by Teddy Tinling and attending sponsor cocktail parties around the U.S. She even met the movie star John Wayne, staying on his tennis ranch and teaching his wife to play the game.<\/p>\n

On June 21, 1973, Moor attended the famous meeting convened by Billie Jean King at London\u2019s Gloucester Hotel, where the WTA was formed. The following week, she achieved her best Grand Slam result with a third round run at Wimbledon, and later that summer was courtside when King faced Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes at the Houston Astrodome.<\/p>\n

Playing Chris Evert in the first round at Eastbourne in 1974, right after the young American had won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, became another treasured memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were housed with families then \u2013 there was lots of hospitality and a lot of camaraderie and I met a lot of lovely people\u201d Moor said. \u201cIt felt exciting, and it felt like things were evolving.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays it\u2019s all aeroplanes and hotels and pressure. I feel I had the best of both worlds: I made a living, I got to see the world, and I got to compete against the best of the day. I had a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With hard graft, Moor established herself in the Top 100, but at the age of 24 she sustained a knee injury that impaired her mobility long-term and affected the trajectory of her career.<\/p>\n

\"Moor_King\"<\/p>\n

\n

Penny Moor and Billie Jean King\n <\/p>\n

In 1980, she retired from the Tour and moved to North Carolina, where she remained for two decades. There, she worked on tennis event promotions \u2013 sometimes calling on former colleagues like King and Wade \u2013 and as a country club professional and coach at the USTA\u2019s Regional Development and Training Center in Greensboro.<\/p>\n

An only child, Moor returned to England in 2000 to care for her elderly mother, while parlaying her interest in antique furniture into a business, as a U.K. based agent for American purveyors of furniture, lighting and home accessories.<\/p>\n

Later, she applied her energies to giving back, with a focus on youth mentoring, coaching and creating opportunities for disadvantaged kids and wider communities through tennis. She became a valued member of the Board of Trustees of the Elena Baltacha Foundation, named for the former British No.1 who succumbed to liver cancer in 2014. More recently, Moor engaged with WTA Foundation events, including WTA Come Play clinics conducted by Judy Murray.<\/p>\n

\"Bostrom_Moor_Exeter<\/p>\n

\n

Emma Solley\n <\/p>\n

\u201cPenny cared deeply about our sport\u2019s capacity to make a difference around the world,\u201d said Ann Austin, executive director of the WTA Foundation. \u201cShe was rightly proud of her role as a founding member of the WTA, and the platform for positive change that is still so powerful all these years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, when the WTA celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, Moor, who had served on the Membership and Tournament sub-committees of the fledgling organization, was an enthusiastic participant and lent her Virginia Slims dresses for display.<\/p>\n

\u201cIlana\u00a0and I are saddened by the passing of Penny Moor, who not only a leading British player, but was one of the brave women who were in the room at the Gloucester Hotel when the WTA was formed,\u201d said Billie Jean King.<\/p>\n

\u201cPenny stayed connected to tennis throughout her life and her work with the Elena Baltacha Foundation and the WTA Foundation has opened doors for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy tennis as much as she did. She will be missed and always loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

This past summer, Moor enlisted American Tour contemporary Trish Bostrom to help with a community tennis initiative at Exeter Cathedral, in her hometown.<\/p>\n

\u201cPenny was a woman of faith,\u201d said Bostrom, reflecting on her friend. \u201cShe was generous, kind, and hard-working \u2013 and she was very courageous in leaving England to compete on the initial Virginia Slims Circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven at 75, she was playing tennis regularly, and she often asked me to find better players for her to hit with!\u201d<\/p>\n

Moor\u2019s beloved husband, Geoff, whom she married in 2005, passed away in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WTA is mourning the death at age 75 of Penelope \u2018Penny\u2019 Moor, who played professional tennis in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":["post-936606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936606","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=936606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}