Ann Jones (tennis)

Ann Jones

Ann Jones after Isner-Mahut match
ITF name	Ann Jones
Country (sports)	Great Britain
Born	(1938-10-07) 7 October 1938 Kings Heath, Birmingham, England
Plays	Left-handed
Int. Tennis HoF	1985 (member page)
Singles
Career titles	113
Highest ranking	No. 2 (1967, Lance Tingay)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	SF (1969)
French Open	W (1961, 1966)
Wimbledon	W (1969)
US Open	F (1961, 1967)
Doubles
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	SF (1969)
French Open	W (1963, 1968, 1969)
Wimbledon	F (1968)
US Open	F (1960)
Mixed doubles
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	W (1969)
French Open	F (1960, 1966, 1967)
Wimbledon	W (1969)

Adrianne Shirley Jones CBE (born 7 October 1938), née Haydon, usually known as Ann Jones and sometimes as Ann Haydon-Jones or Ann Haydon Jones, is a former table tennis and lawn tennis champion. She won a total of 7 Grand Slam championships during her career: three in singles, three in women's doubles, and one in mixed doubles. As of 2016, she currently serves as a vice president of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.

Career

Jones was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham, England. Her parents were prominent table tennis players, her father, Adrian Haydon, having been British number 1 and a competitor at world championships between 1928 and 1953. Ann, as a young girl, also took up the game, participating in five world championships in the 1950s, the best result being losing finalist in singles, doubles and mixed doubles all in Stockholm 1957. Soon after this she wrote the book "Tackle Table Tennis This Way".

She was also a powerful lawn tennis player, winning the 1954 and 1955 British junior championships. In 1956, she won the Wimbledon girls' singles championship.

Jones played lawn tennis in a highly competitive era that included some of the greatest female tennis players of all time, including Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, and Maria Bueno. Despite the fierce competition, she won the 1961 French Championships and reached the final of the 1961 U.S. Championships, losing to the defending champion, Darlene Hard. In 1962, she married P.F. Jones and, recorded as Ann Haydon-Jones, won the French title for a second time in 1966.

At both the Wimbledon Championships and the U.S. Championships in 1967, Jones lost in the final to King. Two years later, however, the two again met in the Wimbledon final. This time, Jones took the most coveted title in the sport, making her the first left-handed female player to do so. She rounded off that year's Wimbledon by winning the mixed doubles championship with Australia's Fred Stolle. Her performances resulted in her being voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Jones made Wimbledon 1969 her last Grand Slam singles event. She was seeded number one for the 1969 US Open but withdrew before the tournament began. She radically reduced her playing schedule for 1970, playing in South Africa where she won the Orange Free State Championships and the Western Province Championships. She then largely played only events in the United Kingdom for the remainder of the year. She returned to the international scene to play the Federation Cup event in Australia, where she partnered Virginia Wade on the British team. In 1971, Jones played on the Virginia Slims circuit, winning the U.S.$10,000 first prize for the event staged in Las Vegas, beating King in the final. Jones more or less retired after this event as she was expecting her first child. However, Jones continued to play the occasional UK event and was part of the 1975 Wightman Cup team for Great Britain. In 1977, Jones teamed with Winnie Wooldridge to play doubles at Wimbledon.

According to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail and Bud Collins, Jones was ranked in the world top ten from 1957 through 1963 and from 1965 through 1970, reaching a career high of World No. 2 in those rankings in 1967 and 1969.

According to Mark Lewisohn in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, on 4 July 1969, The Beatles paused the dubbing session for their song "Golden Slumbers" to listen to Jones beat King for the Wimbledon title, live on radio.

With the dawn of the open era in 1968, Jones joined with King and others to organize the first professional female touring group. In 1970, she was hired by the BBC as a guest commentator and worked with them for over three decades, while occasionally commentating for US TV stations' tennis coverage. Jones was chairwoman of the Women's International Tennis Council and for many years the British team captain for events such as the Federation and Wightman Cups.

Jones caused something of a stir on 30 August 1962 when she married businessman Philip "Pip" Jones (1907-1993) who was thirty-one years her senior and five years older than her father. The couple later became the butt of many jokes on Monty Python's Flying Circus during its series run. As a running gag, the Pythons would frequently insert "Ann Haydon-Jones and her husband Pip" into any sketch where a list of names was being read off.

In 1985, Jones was voted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. For many years, Jones was chairwoman of the International Women's Tennis Council and has long been a member of Wimbledon's Committee of Management. She became the first ever 'civilian woman' (i.e. not a member of the British Royal Family) to present the trophies at Wimbledon, when she awarded the winners of the Mixed Doubles championship their cup in 2007, a ceremony she now regularly performs. She has since also presented the junior girls trophy.

Already a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Jones was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to tennis.

Grand Slam record

• Australian Open
  • Mixed Doubles champion: 1969
• French Championships/Open
  • Singles champion: 1961, 1966
  • Singles runner-up: 1963, 1968, 1969
  • Women's Doubles champion: 1963, 1968, 1969
  • Women's Doubles runner-up: 1960
  • Mixed Doubles runner-up: 1960, 1966, 1967
• Wimbledon
  • Singles champion: 1969
  • Singles runner-up: 1967
  • Women's Doubles runner-up: 1968
  • Mixed Doubles champion: 1969
  • Mixed Doubles runner-up: 1962
• U.S. Championships
  • Singles runner-up: 1961, 1967
  • Women's Doubles runner-up: 1960

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 9 (3–6)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1961	French Championships	Clay	Yola Ramírez	6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	1961	US Championships	Grass	Darlene Hard	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	1963	French Championships	Clay	Lesley Turner Bowrey	2–6, 6–3, 7–5
Winner	1966	French Championships	Clay	Nancy Richey	6–3, 6–1
Runner-up	1967	Wimbledon	Grass	Billie Jean King	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	1967	US Championships	Grass	Billie Jean King	11–9, 6–4
Runner-up	1968	French Championships	Clay	Nancy Richey	5–7, 6–4, 6–1
Runner-up	1969	French Open	Clay	Margaret Court	6–1, 4–6, 6–3
Winner	1969	Wimbledon	Grass	Billie Jean King	3–6, 6–3, 6–2

Doubles: 6 (3–3)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1960	French Championships	Clay	Patricia Ward Hales	Maria Bueno Darlene Hard	6–2, 7–5
Runner-up	1960	US Championships	Grass	Deidre Catt	Maria Bueno Darlene Hard	6–1, 6–1
Winner	1963	French Championships	Clay	Renee Schuurman	Margaret Court Robyn Ebbern	7–5, 6–4
Winner	1968	French Open	Clay	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	7–5, 4–6, 6–4
Runner-up	1968	Wimbledon	Grass	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	9–11, 6–4, 6–2
Winner	1969	French Open	Clay	Françoise Dürr	Margaret Court Nancy Richey	6–0, 4–6, 7–5

Mixed doubles: 5 (1–4)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1960	French Championships	Clay	Roy Emerson	Maria Bueno Bob Howe	1–6, 6–1, 6–2
Runner-up	1962	Wimbledon	Grass	Dennis Ralston	Margaret Osborne duPont Neale Fraser	2–6, 6–3, 13–11
Runner-up	1966	French Championships	Clay	Clark Graebner	Annette Van Zyl Frew McMillan	1–6, 6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	1967	French Championships	Clay	Ion Ţiriac	Billie Jean King Owen Davidson	6–3, 6–1
Winner	1969	Wimbledon	Grass	Fred Stolle	Judy Tegart Tony Roche	6–2, 6–3
	1969	Australian Open	Grass	Fred Stolle	Margaret Court Marty Riessen	*Shared title, final not played

• Although both teams shared the 1969 Australian Open mixed doubles title, it is not counted in the official Grand Slam title count.

Grand Slam performance timelines

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

DNQ

A

NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

Tournament	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	W–L
Australia	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	A	A	A	SF	3–2
France	A	SF	QF	A	4R	W	SF	F	A	QF	W	QF	F	F	44–8
Wimbledon	2R	3R	SF	QF	SF	4R	SF	SF	QF	4R	SF	F	SF	W	57–13
United States	A	QF	3R	SF	QF	F	A	SF	QF	QF	A	F	SF	A	36–10

Doubles

Tournament	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970-1974	1975	1976	1977	W–L
Australia	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	QF	A	A	A	SF	A	A	A	A	4–2
France	A	2R	SF	A	F	QF	SF	W	A	QF	SF	QF	W	W	A	A	A	A	32–7
Wimbledon	1R	3R	2R	QF	3R	3R	2R	SF	SF	2R	SF	SF	F	3R	A	A	A	3R	33–15
United States	A	QF	SF	SF	F	QF	A	SF	A	A	A	A	SF	A	A	1R	A	A	17–8

Singles titles (113)

• 1956 – Cheltenham, Sunderland Championships, Welsh Championships, Worthing Hard Courts, North of England Championships
• 1957 – Tally Ho! Tournament, Northumberland County Championships, Malvern, Sunderland Championships, South of England Championships
• 1958 – Tally Ho!, Durham
• 1959 – Mexico City, Pan American Championships
• 1960 – Finnish Championships, Scandinavian Indoors, German Indoors, Good Neighbor Championships Miami, St. Petersburg Masters, Caribe Hilton International, Mexico City, St. Andrew's Invitations Kingston, Caribbean Championships, Tally Ho! Tournament, Sutton Hard Courts, Malvern Championships, Cologne Championships, Essex County Championships, Pacific Southwest Championships, Championships of Morocco, Torquay Palace Indoors.
• 1961 – Good Neighbor Championships Miami, French Championships, Wolverhamption Open, Lowther Championships, Irish Championships, Welsh Championships, Canadian Nationals, Chilean Nationals, São Paulo Championships
• 1962 – West Province Championships, Hewlett's Hard Courts Durban, French Indoors, Scandinavian Indoors, British Covered Court Championships, Cumberland Hard Courts, Sutton Hard Courts, London Hard Courts, Cheltenham, Midland Championships (shared), Welsh Championships, St. Moritz, Palace Torquay
• 1963 – Coupe Pierre Gillou, German Indoors, Scandinavian Indoor Championships, French Indoors, Carlton International, Sutton Championships, British Hard Courts, London Hard Courts, Wolverhampton, Cheltenham, Hoylake Open, Carlyon Bay Championships
• 1964 – British Hard Courts, Sutton Coldfield, Surrey Championships, Bavarian Championships, British Covered Court Championships, Carlyon Bay Covered Courts
• 1965 – German Indoors, French Indoors, Dutch Indoor, Cumberland Championships, Sutton Hard Courts, British Hard Courts, British Covered Court Championships, Carlyon Bay Covered Courts, Palace Torquay
• 1966 – German Indoors, French Indoors, Cumberland Championships, British Hard Courts, Connaught, Italian Championships, French Championships, Moscow International
• 1967 – German Indoors, Scandinavian Indoors, Dixie International, Barranquilla Championships, Caracas Championships, Curaçao Invitational, Mexico City, Caribe Hilton International, Masters Invitational, Kent Championships, Essex Championships
• 1968 – Caracas, Queen's Club (shared), Argentine & South American Open
• 1969 – New Zealand Open, Monte Carlo Open, Belgian Open, Queen's Club Grass Championships, Wimbledon, Aix-En-Provence Championships, British Covered Court Championships
• 1970 – Orange Free State Championships, Western Province Championships, Benson & Hedges Open, Bio-Strath London Hard Court Championships, Surrey Grass Courts, Chichester, Eastbourne International, Turkish International, Dewar Cup Torquay
• 1971 – Caribe Hilton International, Caesar's Palace World Pro
• 1975 – Torquay Palace Indoors

See also

• Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final

References

Tackle Table Tennis This Way, by Ann Haydon, 1958 (Now out of print)

External links

• Ann Jones at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Ann Jones at the Women's Tennis Association
• Ann Jones at the Billie Jean King Cup