Annabel Croft

A former British Number One Tennis champion, Annabel Croft retired from professional tennis at the age of twenty-one. At 15, she was the youngest Briton to play in the Wimbledon main draw for nearly 100 years. Her charm and entertaining playing style made her a household name and a great favourite with fans both at live tennis events and on television and these attributes transferred naturally to the world of entertainment /media.
Immediately after her retirement, Annabel developed, and continues to enjoy, long term relationships with many of the leading broadcasters’ both as an anchor, commentator, tennis reporter and as an all-round sports correspondent.
Annabel also developed a successful media career, initially as the face of Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt and ITV’s Interceptor. She took part in the award winning documentary series “Famous Rich and Homeless for BBC1, where she lived homeless on the streets of London for 9 days.
Annabel also hosted her own series, The Flying Picnic, for Granada and Sky Travel. Travelling around in an original DeHavilland Moth plane, she collected the ingredients from around Britain to recreate the famous household guru’s ‘Mrs Beeton’s Picnic for Forty’ which since airing has received record viewer ratings. Tapping into her passion of healthy and fun eating and cooking for family and friends, The Flying Picnic saw Annabel celebrate the quality of food Britain really has to offer.
Naturally, every year sees Annabel continue to play an integral role in the coverage of Wimbledon, for both BBC and Radio 5 Live and has also hosted “Live@Wimbledon” on behalf of AELTC for the Tournament and its global Internet audience.
She is also a key member of Eurosport’s coverage of the Australian and French Open Championships and Amazon Prime Video UK’s latest coverage of the US Open. For many years, she has been a key part of Sky’s coverage of the ATP Masters Series. Former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho recently called her his favourite female Sports Pundit in the Daily Telegraph.
As a fit, healthy, glamorous mum-of-three, Annabel uses her position to raise awareness of the benefits of Homeopathy and Natural medicines, as well as child obesity in the UK and the issues and causes surrounding it.
Annabel has been a Tennis Ambassador for the LTA with the launch of TFK “Tennis for Kids” Campaign encouraging more children to get active and play tennis travelling around the country, visiting Schools and Tennis Clubs meeting coaches, kids and parents.
Annabel is passionate about Health and fitness and loves to encourage a healthy lifestyle. She regularly jogs with friends, plays tennis and does yoga.
In 2023 Annabel sadly lost her husband Mel Coleman, a former America’s Cup and Admiral’s Cup yachtsman, after a short illness from cancer. In 2009, they together launched the Annabel Croft Tennis Academy at the National Tennis Centre which coached up to 350 children a week and the Academy now has an all year round centre in Portugal which is complimented by the travel business, Annabel Croft Holidays. They have two daughters named Amber Rose and Lily and a son, Charlie.

It was Mel’s wish to raise funds for research on the metabolic health of people with cancer.
To donate, go to http://gofundme.com/f/support-forever-young-groups-research 

In Autumn 2023 Annabel swopped her tennis shoes for dancing shoes where she took part in the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing and reached the Semi Finals and was part of the cast doing the UK tour of ‘Strictly Live’.

 In 2024, Annabel presented and commentated for Sky Sports and the BBC at all the main Tennis tournaments, including again doing the on court interviews at the Ladies and Men’s finals at Wimbledon and
commentating at the 2024 US Open for 5 Live and Sky Sports UK.