Some people think im taking the mickey when i say im a big fan, so heres a few stats, then compare her to todays British hopefuls:

Australian Open SF (1975, 1977)
French Open W (1976)
Wimbledon SF (1977)
U.S. Open 4R (1976)

She once reached the YECs, losing to Evert 6-2 1-6 1-6

She won 15 titles and 16 doubles titles

Her career high ranking was 3

I like her too. She was painful to watch sometimes though. Had a knack of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Has to be said though mate, when she won RG a lot of the top players weren't there ie Evert :wub: , Navratilova, Goolagong.

As a player she was a little before my time, but I was told she was a great and represented Britain well....AND did it with a great set of legs....which these pics tend to prove!

Thanks for hilighting this Liam :ok:

I've always been surprised at the lack of credit Sue gets. She really is one of Britains sporting greats imo. :wub:

It's also interesting that she attained her career high ranking of number 3 in the later 70's when she was no longer FO champion; so managed to cut it at the top clearly even when Chrissie and Nav were playing all the slams.

Quite a lot before my time sadly :( I like our Sue though :D

Sue is overlooked when it comes to sporting achievement sadly. She was a handy doubles player - usually with Anne Kiyomura. She upset Evert once and Navratilova twice. No mean feat that as as everyone knows, those 2 were so far ahead of the rest of the players. Cracking personality too :clap:

Am I making this up, but I strongly remember that in the Wimbledon 1977 semi final against Bette Stove, Sue was a break up in the final set before contriving to lose. What a final that would have been: Wade against Barker ...

Silver Jubilee year too. HM in the Royal Box. Would've been some occasion.

sounds pretty successful. However, she played in a depleted generation [not all players played] and therefore she doesn;t get the credit she deserves

Yes thats right, Stove beat Navratilova in the 1/4s then Sue in 3 sets in the semis

She was also quite injury prone, she retired 11 years after going pro, but i think she missed quite a bit of the last 4 or 5 years of that through injury

Yep she was forced to retire relatively early because of injury. She never really got to live up to her full potential, which is why I think everyone should give her full credit for that FO. As who knows, had it not been for such a quirk of fate as injury, she could've won more ;)

Sadly, Barker & Wade were the last of our great players. Jo Durie again had the potential but didn't deliver when it mattered. Since then who have we had? Wood, Smith, Loosemore (huge talent - she could've been a top 20er at least) and that's about it :(

Hey, you forgot Annabel :wub:

Oops - how remiss of me!! Of course - another talented player who just didn't make the final push into the top 20. :shrug:

I know, it would've been 2 Brits in the final :o

I've read though that the Stoves-Barker semi was pretty poor quality. I think that was because Wade took out Evert beforehand, so both ladies realised that they now had a huge opportunity to take the title.

But Virgina came through in the end :D

Wade leads their h2h 9-6, but they never played each other at a slam. They did play 2 finals against each other with Wade winning Paris Indoors in 1975 and Barker winning California in 1977. Sue played Jo Durie once in 1982 and Jo won that one. Wade played Durie 4 times and won them all (2 of those coming in the 2nd round at wimbledon)

Sue Barker, she's the god botherer who used to well.. not quite go out with Cliff, nice to know she was good for something other than giggling like and idiot on question of sport.
Can you imagine if they'd had kids?

lol, whats a god botherer?

it's a kind of phrase for a very religious person!
She's actually a nice person, but just a bit too sweet for me, if you know what i mean.

Still by the standards of the Brits in tennis, she's a genius!

Sue actually had one of the better forehands in the game during her hey-day apparently. I've read that BJK used to watch it on the practise courts as it was so lethal on its day :)

backhand a shambles at times i've heard :wacko:

Yeh, when she was on, her flat forehand was superb, and she'd often win matches purely because of that shot.

Her backhand was normally steady, though sometimes it could go awry.

(I've been reading the 'Blast from the Past' forum on WTAworld a lot recently :lol:)

Her wikipedia says her forehand was a major weapon on the tour in her day yes dl04. And I think she is really good on Quesiton of Sport good host.

Ace magazine hall of fame

Wimbledon the history

:lol:

I was looking through my old Ace's the other day and Mirka is on the sex list for like 2000 or smt around then. She is no.4 and pretty darn hot there.

To be honest I dont know much about her playing career apart from that French Open win......

But I really like her presenting style and think she is the perfect anchor for the BBCs coverage.

And on Q.o.S she is very funny :lol:

Very True :lol: