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Anne Keothavong is a former professional tennis player and Olympian who was five times British number one and, in 2009, became the first Briton in 16 years to break into the Women’s Tennis Association’s top 50.

Since retiring from playing competitively Anne now captains Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team, formerly the Fed Cup team, which she led into the World Group II for the first time in 26 years.

Career

Anne first started playing tennis aged 7 at Hackney Downs and Highbury Fields. She played her first match on the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Junior Circuit five years later.

Anne played her first professional match at age 14 and moved steadily up the rankings before entering her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2001.

Over the course of her 15-year playing career Anne won 20 ITF singles titles and eight doubles titles. She competed in all four Grand Slams, reaching the third round of the US Open in 2009.

In 2001 Anne became the then youngest player to represent Great Britain in the Fed Cup. In total she played 39 times for the team, the joint second highest number of appearances behind Virginia Wade. Anne represented Great Britain in both singles and doubles at the 2012 London Olympic games.

Following her playing retirement Anne has pursued a career in broadcasting as a tennis commentator and analyst for BT Sport, BBC, ITV, Amazon Prime Video Sports and Fox Sports Asia. 

Since 2017 Anne has captained the Great Britain team in the Fed Cup and Bllie Jean King Cup winning all four ties in her first year and leading the team to promotion to World Group II.

Awards
Anne was appointed MBE in 2021 for services to tennis.

Personal Life

Anne was born in Hackney, to where her parents had fled from war torn Laos in the 1970’s. Anne lives with her husband and their two children.