Annabel Croft, 53, looks just like she did three decades ago at Wimbledon

It is more than 30 years since she graced the courts of Wimbledon as one of Britain’s top tennis stars.

But Annabel Croft says that at 53 she is in better shape than she was as a professional sportswoman – thanks to yoga.

Former British No 1 Miss Croft, a mother of three, told the Mail: ‘I feel fitter now than I’ve ever felt in my life. When you play tennis four, five, six hours a day, you’re fit for playing tennis. You get more bunched up with the stress of playing and the competitive side of it, your shoulders get tighter.

‘Now I’m more supple. I have a different body to the one that played tennis. Yoga has been fantastic for me. I just wish more people would do it because it might calm people down – there’s too much anger in the world.’

Miss Croft won the junior Wimbledon and Australian Open tournaments in 1984 but could not repeat her success at senior level and quit the sport in 1988 aged 21. 

She married international yachtsman Mel Coleman in 1993 and is now a TV presenter and commentator.

Last week, she was a guest on Sue Barker’s BBC2 show Wimbledon: The Best Of The Championship. 

Discussing the cancellation of this year’s tournament due to coronavirus, she said: ‘The people I feel most sorry for are the groundsmen. They spend their whole year making those courts perfect.’