Clare Wood

Born in Zululand, Clare Wood’s mother was Virginia Wade’s Sunday School teacher when the future Wimbledon champion lived in Durban in the 1950s. When she was aged 10, Wood and her family came to England and the youngster went to school in Eastbourne, where her first tennis coach was Clay Iles. Wood went on to become the British number one and was national champion three times in 1988-89 and 1995.

Wood played on the WTA Tour between 1984 and 1998 and enjoyed just one ITF singles win when she beat Spain’s María José Llorca at Lisbon in 1986. In addition, Wood captured six ITF and one WTA doubles titles.

When she appeared at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Wood became the first Briton, male or female, to take part in three Olympic tennis tournaments. Heather Watson later equalled Wood’s feat and only the Murray brothers, Andy and Jamie, have competed in more. Wood’s best performance was in the doubles in 1996 when, partnering Valda Lake, she reached the quarter-finals before losing in straight sets to the eventual gold medallists, Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez of the USA.

Wood also represented Great Britain in the Federation Cup (now the Billie Jean King Cup) between 1988-97, with an 18/10 record in singles, and 16/8 in doubles. In 1989, she played in the very last Wightman Cup match for Great Britain again the United States. America won 7-0 and Wood lost her singles 0-6, 0-6 to Jennifer Capriati, who became the youngest ever Wightman cup player.

Having reached WTA high rankings of 77th in the singles (1994), and 59th in doubles (1996) Wood retired in 1998 following a recurring leg injury. Her last WTA singles match was on centre court at Wimbledon in 1997 when she lost 0-6, 0-6 to the 1995 champion Arantxa Sánchez Vicario of Spain.

Wood’s best Grand Slam performance was in 1995 when she reached the quarter-final of the mixed doubles at Wimbledon with Mark Petchey, before losing to Grant Connell of Canada and Lindsay Davenport of the USA. Wood’s best singles performance was at the 1991 Australian Open when she reached the third round, but lost to Natalya (later Natasha) Zvereva. The next British woman to reach the third round in Melbourne was Elena Baltacha in 2005.

After finishing her playing career Wood took up coaching, mostly youngsters, but in 1998 got a call from the tennis-playing Prime Minister Tony Blair to coach him. Between 1999-2002 she was a supervisor on the WTA Tour, also became a Gold Badge Referee. Between 2002-08 Wood worked in the Referee’s Office at Wimbledon as an assistant referee, and in 2004 officiated as an Assistant Referee for the tennis tournament at the Athens Olympics. In 2008 she was appointed the tennis competition manager for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. As a referee she officiated at many Fed Cup and Davis Cup matches. In 2013 Wood won the British Seniors Over-45s Grass Court Championship.