Sue Barker tells Chris Evans she's 'loved every minute' of her broadcasting career

Virgin Radio

27 Sep 2022, 12:30

Tennis and broadcasting legend Sue Barker joined The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about her memoir, Calling The Shots: My Autobiography.

Sue’s book - which is out this Thursday, 29th September - takes us inside her tennis career and 30 years as a presenter for the BBC. She told Chris: “My mum always wanted me to do the book… I lost her this year, but she’d made 100. She did really well. 

“In the last year it was lovely for me to get out all the photo albums, all the scrapbooks and reminisce with her about things. So it actually gave me a lovely year with my mum.” 

During her chat with Chris, Sue went back to the beginning of her career, and spoke about the influence that her coach, Arthur Roberts, had on her as a girl. “He not only taught me tennis, but taught me life skills and belief in myself, because I was a bit of a Minnie Mouse, and I had to come out of myself.”

Sue also recalled how in 1971, Roberts sent his 15-year-old protégé to a junior championship in France with a one-way ticket, telling her she’d need to win prize money to pay her fare home. “It’s bizarre isn’t it? So off I flew!” she said.

Continuing, the tennis legend explained: “It was Nice, I mean, come one, we’re not talking somewhere horrible. I’d played a lot in Europe, as junior, so I sort of knew it and the club was beautiful and it closed its gates at night. So I thought, rather than stay in a hotel, I’m going to sleep in one of the cabanas within the grounds, and then hide in the morning when they did a walk round.”

“Once I made the quarter-finals, I had enough money then to get a ticket home and a hotel.”

She continued: “He also sent me to America when I was 17 years of age, on my own! I couldn’t wait to go… I was going from sharing a room with my sister, over to Newport Beach, California, to my own two-bed condo, on my own!

“One of the first people I hit with was Rod Laver, and one of the clubs I played at was the John Wayne tennis club! I thought, ‘I’m in paradise!’”

A few years later, Sue was Britain’s number one and number three in the world, having won the French Open in 1976, aged 20. Arthur Roberts refused to be paid throughout Sue’s entire career. “I tried to pay him loads of times,” she said. Having given him “four or five times, quite a few thousand”, Sue later discovered that he had invested it all for her, for after her tennis career. “He died in 87, and then in about 89/90, the first of these unit trust things landed on my doormat.”

Sue is as well known these days for being a presenter, but she told Chris that her attempts to get a job at the BBC didn’t go too well at first. “I did go to the BBC when I retired [from playing] and said, ‘Would you take me on as a commentator?’ and they said, ‘Well, we’d love to, but we’ve got Virginia Wade, and we’ve got Anne Jones and they’ve both won Wimbledon!’” 

Of course, the former tennis star would go on to become a much-loved, award-winning presenter, and last year was her 30th and final year of hosting Wimbledon before retiring from the BBC. When asked what she would do next summer when the tournament comes around, she said: “I’m going to be there… I want to go and watch a lot of the Brits, I want to go and watch a lot of the juniors. I want to go and see the next generation.”

Speaking about her time at the BBC, she added: “I’ve had, for me, the two best jobs in television: Question of Sport and Wimbledon. There isn’t another job that would excite me in the same way as those two.”

Continuing, Sue explained: “The 30 years, I’ve loved every minute of it, and BBC Sport gave me the most beautiful send-off at Wimbledon this year that will live long in my memory. I never expected to have the sort of reaction that I had, and the tribute that was done for me is something I will treasure forever and made me feel - oh, I’m welling up thinking about it - made me feel really embarrassed but so, so special. 

“I wish it was 30 years ago and I could start again. I loved it, loved it, loved it.”

She concluded: “You’ve got to know when the time is to move on and let someone else enjoy it.”

During her chat with Chris, Sue also spoke about Martina Navratilova, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, and recalled the first time she ever saw Roger Federer play. You can listen to the full interview here.

Calling The Shots: My Autobiography is out this Thursday, 29th September. Sue is embarking on a 10-date UK Penguin Live theatre tour, Sue Barker Live: Calling the Shots. For tickets, visit penguin.co.uk/events.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.