The Most Famous

TENNIS PLAYERS from United Kingdom

This page contains a list of the greatest British Tennis Players. The pantheon dataset contains 1,569 Tennis Players, 52 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 8th most number of Tennis Players behind Germany, and Czechia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary British Tennis Players of all time. This list of famous British Tennis Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of British Tennis Players.

1. Fred Perry (1909 - 1995)

With an HPI of 63.38, Fred Perry is the most famous British Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 37 different languages on wikipedia.

Frederick John Perry (18 May 1909 – 2 February 1995) was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was World Amateur number one tennis player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the men's Wimbledon championship, in 1936, and the last British player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title, until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open. Perry was the first player to win a "Career Grand Slam", winning all four singles titles, which he completed at the age of 26 at the 1935 French Championships. He remains the only British player ever to achieve this. Perry's first love was table tennis and he was World Champion in 1929. He began playing tennis aged 14 and his tennis career at 21, when in 1930 an LTA committee chose him to join a four-man team to tour the United States. In 1933, Perry helped lead the Great Britain team to victory over France in the Davis Cup; the team's first success since 1912, followed by wins over the United States in 1934, 1935, and a fourth consecutive title with victory over Australia in 1936. But due to his disillusionment with the class-conscious nature of the Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, the working-class Perry turned professional at the end of the 1936 season and moved to the United States where he became a naturalised U.S. citizen in 1939. In 1942, he was drafted into the US Army Air Force during the Second World War. Despite his unprecedented contribution to British tennis, Perry was not accorded full recognition by tennis authorities until later in life, because between 1927 and 1967 the International Lawn Tennis Federation ignored amateur champions who later turned professional. In 1984, a statue of Perry was unveiled at Wimbledon, and in the same year he became the only tennis player listed in a survey of 2,000 Britons to find the "Best of the Best" British sportsmen of the 20th century.

2. Charlotte Cooper (1870 - 1966)

With an HPI of 60.61, Charlotte Cooper is the 2nd most famous British Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Charlotte "Chattie" Cooper Sterry (née Charlotte Reinagle Cooper; 22 September 1870 – 10 October 1966) was an English female tennis player who won five singles titles at the Wimbledon Championships and in 1900 became Olympic champion. In winning in Paris on 11 July 1900, she became the first female Olympic tennis champion as well as the first individual female Olympic champion.

3. Reginald Doherty (1872 - 1910)

With an HPI of 56.60, Reginald Doherty is the 3rd most famous British Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Reginald "Reggie" or "R. F." Frank Doherty (14 October 1872 – 29 December 1910) was a British tennis player and the older brother of tennis player Laurence Doherty. He was known in the tennis world as "R.F." rather than "Reggie". He was a four-time Wimbledon singles champion and a triple Olympic Gold medalist in doubles and mixed doubles.

4. William Renshaw (1861 - 1904)

With an HPI of 55.20, William Renshaw is the 4th most famous British Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

William Charles Renshaw (3 January 1861 – 12 August 1904) was a British tennis player active during the late 19th century, who was ranked world No. 1. He won twelve Major titles during his career. A right-hander, he was known for his power and technical ability which put him ahead of competition at the time. Renshaw shared the all-time male record of seven Wimbledon singles titles with American Pete Sampras until 2017 when Roger Federer won his eighth singles title. His six consecutive singles titles (1881–86) is an all-time record. Additionally he won the doubles title five times together with his twin brother Ernest. William Renshaw was the first president of the British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

5. Margaret Scriven (1912 - 2001)

With an HPI of 55.02, Margaret Scriven is the 5th most famous British Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Margaret Croft Scriven-Vivian (née Scriven; 17 August 1912 – 25 January 2001) was a British tennis player and the first woman from that country to win the singles title at the French Championships in 1933. She also won the singles title at the 1934 French Championships, defeating Helen Jacobs in the final. She was ranked No. 5 in the world in 1933 and 1934.

6. Dorothy Shepherd-Barron (1897 - 1953)

With an HPI of 54.93, Dorothy Shepherd-Barron is the 6th most famous British Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Dorothy Shepherd-Barron (née Cunliffe; 24 November 1897 – 20 February 1953) was a tennis player from Great Britain who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics.

7. Maud Watson (1864 - 1946)

With an HPI of 52.64, Maud Watson is the 7th most famous British Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Maud Edith Eleanor Watson, MBE (9 October 1864 – 5 June 1946) was a British tennis player and the first female Wimbledon champion.

8. Evelyn Colyer (1902 - 1930)

With an HPI of 52.57, Evelyn Colyer is the 8th most famous British Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Evelyn Lucy Colyer (later Munro, 16 August 1902 – 4 November 1930) was a female tennis player from Great Britain. With Joan Austin, sister of Bunny Austin, Colyer played doubles in the 1923 Wimbledon final against Suzanne Lenglen and Elizabeth Ryan. Colyer and Austin were known in the British press as "The Babes." At the 1924 Paris Olympics, she teamed with Dorothy Shepherd-Barron to win a bronze medal in the women's doubles event. From 1920 until 1929, she competed in all editions of the Wimbledon Championships. Her best singles result was reaching the fourth round in 1927 in which she was defeated by Kitty Godfree. In 1925, she teamed with P.B.D Spence and won the mixed doubles title at the Queen's Club Covered Courts Championships. She was part of the winning British Wightman Cup team in 1924 and 1925 as well as the team that lost in 1926. On 13 February 1930 she married Hamish Munro, a tea planter from Assam, British India and soon afterward, the couple migrated to Assam. She died on 6 November 1930 of complications after giving birth to twins on 20 October.

9. Dora Boothby (1881 - 1970)

With an HPI of 52.03, Dora Boothby is the 9th most famous British Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Penelope Dora Harvey Boothby (2 August 1881 – 22 February 1970) was an English tennis and badminton player. She was born in Finchley, Middlesex. She is best remembered for her ladies' singles title at the 1909 Wimbledon Championships. In Badminton, she won the 1909 All England Championships in Mixed doubles category.

10. Andy Murray (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 51.59, Andy Murray is the 10th most famous British Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 78 different languages.

Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray won three Grand Slam singles titles, two at Wimbledon (in 2013 and 2016), and one at the US Open (in 2012), and reached eleven major finals. Murray was ranked in the top 10 for all but one month from July 2008 through to October 2017, and was in the top 4 in eight of the nine year-end rankings during that time. Murray won 46 ATP Tour singles titles, including 14 Masters 1000 events and two gold medals at the Summer Olympics. Originally coached by his mother Judy alongside his older brother Jamie, Murray moved to Barcelona at age 15 to train at the Sánchez-Casal Academy. He began his professional career around the time Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal established themselves as the two dominant players in men's tennis. Murray had immediate success on the ATP Tour, making his top 10 debut in 2007 at age 19. By 2010, Murray and Novak Djokovic had joined Federer and Nadal in the Big Four, the group of players who dominated men's tennis during the 2010s. Murray initially struggled against the rest of the Big Four, losing his first four major finals (three to Federer and one to Djokovic). He made his major breakthrough in 2012 by defeating Djokovic to win the US Open, becoming the first British major singles champion since Virginia Wade in 1977, and the first male champion since Fred Perry in 1936. He also beat Djokovic to win Wimbledon in 2013. Murray had his career-best season in 2016, when he made three major finals, winning Wimbledon. He also defended his title at the 2016 Rio Olympics (having previously won the gold medal in men's singles at 2012 London Olympics over Roger Federer) to become the only player, male or female, to win two Olympic gold medals in singles. Murray also became world No. 1 for the first time in 2016, and clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking by winning the Tour Finals title over Djokovic. After 2016, he struggled with various injuries and fell out of the top 100 in 2018 due to only seldom playing on tour, though he slowly rose back to the top 50 in the 2020s. He played his final professional tennis tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Murray was an all-court player who excelled in particular at defence, returning serve and constructing points. He was generally regarded as having one of the most consistent two-handed backhands on the ATP Tour. Murray is credited with re-establishing the United Kingdom as a leading force in men's tennis for the first time since the early 20th century. He and his brother led the Great Britain Davis Cup team to a title in 2015. Murray has been outspoken on issues of equality, and became only the second top-10 player in the history of the ATP Tour to have a female coach when he hired Amélie Mauresmo in 2014.

People

Pantheon has 72 people classified as British tennis players born between 1849 and 2001. Of these 72, 30 (41.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living British tennis players include Andy Murray, Virginia Wade, and Angela Mortimer. The most famous deceased British tennis players include Fred Perry, Charlotte Cooper, and Reginald Doherty. As of April 2024, 20 new British tennis players have been added to Pantheon including Margaret Scriven, Dorothy Shepherd-Barron, and Evelyn Colyer.