Chris Wilkinson on arvau

Wikipedia / Chris Wilkinson

Christopher Wilkinson (born 5 January 1970) is a former tennis player from England.

Career

Born and bred in Southampton, Chris Wilkinson has achieved much in the world of tennis. But it could have been very different as his first passion was football in which he excelled for Southampton and had trials for Aston Villa and Coventry. Wilkinson started his winning ways with tennis tournament success as a 10-year-old junior. From there Wilkinson went on to win national and overseas tournaments and represented Great Britain in the World Championships at all junior age groups.

On the main Tour Wilkinson played some of his best tennis at Wimbledon where he reached the 3rd round in Singles on four occasions and made the quarter finals of Doubles. Wilkinson had the privilege of playing on Centre and No. 1 court on many occasions. He will probably be best remembered for his Centre Court battle in 1993 against Stefan Edberg, in which he broke the champion's serve no less than seven times before faltering on his own and succumbing to defeat in three close sets. His best win was over Goran Ivanišević in 1993 at Queen's. Wilkinson has recorded many notable wins over several top 20 world ranked players. Wimbledon continues to be a special place for the former British No. 1 and he is regularly invited to compete in the Gentleman's senior invitational event.

In 1993 Wilkinson achieved his ambition of becoming British No. 1 Singles player. He represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Wilkinson retired from the main tour in 1999 but kept up his competitive play in the following years and in 2005 became the British and world over-35 champion.

Wilkinson is still very much involved with the sport, working with the LTA as a National Performance Coach/captain for the 12 to 16-year-old boys. In February 2018, he was appointed as County Performance Manager for Hampshire and Isle of Wight LTA.

Wilkinson also remains very busy in the media world, including TV commentating for Eurosport, ATP media and ITV4. He also has a regular column with ESPN.

As for playing tennis, Wilkinson is regularly invited to exhibition events where he often plays with some of the all-time greats of the tennis world.

Wilkinson currently resides in Hampshire with his wife Amanda and their two daughters, Alice born in 1998 and Emily born in 2001.

In 1984 he featured in an advert shown in the UK and Ireland for Bisto gravy.

ATP career finals

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (0–0)
ATP World Series (0–2)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–1)
Carpet (0–0)
Finals by setting
Outdoors (0–2)
Indoors (0–0)
Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Jun 1997	Nottingham, United Kingdom	World Series	Grass	Danny Sapsford	Ellis Ferreira Patrick Galbraith	6–4, 6–7, 6–7
Loss	0–2	Sep 1997	Bournemouth, United Kingdom	World Series	Clay	Alberto Martín	Kent Kinnear Aleksandar Kitinov	6–7, 2–6

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 8 (3–5)

Legend
ATP Challenger (3–5)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (1–3)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (2–1)
Carpet (0–1)
Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Challenger	Hard	Roger Smith	6–3, 6–1
Loss	1–1	Bronx, United States	Challenger	Hard	Jean-Philippe Fleurian	6–3, 5–7, 2–6
Loss	1–2	Singapore, Singapore	Challenger	Hard	Tommy Ho	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1–3	Hambühren, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Ján Krošlák	6–7, 3–6
Win	2–3	Manchester, United Kingdom	Challenger	Grass	Christian Saceanu	6–4, 6–4
Loss	2–4	Charleroi, Belgium	Challenger	Hard	Juan-Luis Rascon-Lope	7–6, 3–6, 6–7
Win	3–4	Manchester, United Kingdom	Challenger	Grass	Stefano Pescosolido	6–3, 6–4
Loss	3–5	Bristol, United Kingdom	Challenger	Grass	Raemon Sluiter	3–6, 7–6, 6–7

Doubles: 15 (7–8)

Legend
ATP Challenger (7–7)
ITF Futures (0–1)
Finals by surface
Hard (5–3)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (2–4)
Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Cancelled	0–0	Bristol, United Kingdom	Challenger	Grass	Paul Hand	Jeremy Bates Mark Petchey	6–7, 6–4, abandoned
Win	1–0	Gothenburg, Sweden	Challenger	Hard	Jeremy Bates	Andrew Foster Ross Matheson	7–6, 6–3
Win	2–0	Azores, Portugal	Challenger	Hard	Danny Sapsford	Emanuel Couto Eyal Ran	7–5, 6–1
Win	3–0	Dublin, Ireland	Challenger	Carpet	Danny Sapsford	Arne Thoms Fernon Wibier	7–6, 2–6, 6–3
Loss	3–1	Hambühren, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Brent Larkham	Bret Garnett T. J. Middleton	2–6, 0–3 ret.
Loss	3–2	Azores, Portugal	Challenger	Hard	Nuno Marques	Tim Henman Christian Saceanu	2–6, 2–6
Win	4–2	Singapore, Singapore	Challenger	Hard	Martin Zumpft	Nicola Bruno Mosé Navarra	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
Loss	4–3	Bronx, United States	Challenger	Hard	Chris Haggard	David Di Lucia Scott Humphries	4–6, 1–6
Loss	4–4	Lübeck, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Trey Phillips	Mathias Huning Joost Winnink	6–7, 6–7
Win	5–4	Magdeburg, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Trey Phillips	Tomas Anzari Petr Luxa	6–3, 6–4
Win	6–4	Portorož, Slovenia	Challenger	Hard	Danny Sapsford	Saša Hiršzon Udo Plamberger	6–0, 3–6, 6–3
Loss	6–5	Magdeburg, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Marcos Ondruska	Eyal Erlich Mosé Navarra	6–4, 1–6, 4–6
Loss	6–6	Istanbul, Turkey	Challenger	Hard	Todd Larkham	Eyal Ran Petr Luxa	4–6, 6–7
Loss	6–7	Edinburgh, United Kingdom	Challenger	Clay	Marcos Ondruska	Peter Wessels Edwin Kempes	7–6, 3–6, 2–6
Win	7–7	Olbia, Italy	Challenger	Hard	Todd Larkham	Thomas Shimada Filippo Veglio	3–6, 6–3, 7–6
Loss	7–8	France F3, Melun	Futures	Carpet	Tom Spinks	Aleksandar Kitinov Gerald Mandl	3–6, 2–6