Virginia Wade admits she played Wimbledon in 1977 in the hope of meeting the Queen
(Picture: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Former tennis player Virginia Wade has revealed that Queen Elizabeth’s presence at Wimbledon helped her win her first singles title.
The Queen presented Virginia with the trophy in 1977 on one of only four visits she made to Wimbledon.
“They closed registrations for Wimbledon about six weeks earlier and I was like, ‘I never reached my potential at Wimbledon and I’m running out of time here,’” Wade told the PA news agency.
“Then I heard the Queen was coming and I literally said to myself, ‘I’ll be there. It might be my only chance and I will win,’ so I kind of had that fate. It was a motivation because everyone gets very nervous about all these big events, so determination has to overcome trepidation.”
The meeting, which went down in history, also marked the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Wade added: “I know tennis wasn’t her favourite sport and it was such an honour for her to be there.”
How old is Virginia Wade and where does the last British woman to win the title reside?
How old is Virginia Wade?
Wade is 77 years old and was born in Bournemouth.
She played tennis professionally for 18 years and retired in 1986.
Some of her career highlights include winning three Major tennis singles championships and four major doubles championships. She is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all four majors.
Wade was the most recent British tennis player to win a major singles tournament until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open, and was the last British woman to win the US Open in 1968, before Emma Raducanu’s remarkable 2021 victory.
Following her retirement, she coached tennis and commentated for the BBC, Eurosport, and various US television networks.
Where does Virginia Wade live?
The tennis legend is thought to be living in New York, United States, after being spotted in a local coffee bar in the upper-east side of Manhattan in 2017.
In an interview with the Sunday Times from 2005, she revealed that she has various homes around the world, including New York, London, Kent, and Barbados.
