Angela Buxton

Angela Buxton (16 August 193414 August 2020) was a British tennis player. She won the women's doubles title at both the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1956 with her playing partner, Althea Gibson.

Early life Buxton was born in Liverpool on 16 August 1934, one of two children born to Harry and Violet (Greenberg) Buxton. Her grandparents on both sides were Jewish and had emigrated to England from Russia, fleeing the pogroms in the early 1900s. She was raised partly in South Africa.

Buxton had her most successful tennis year in 1956. She won the women's doubles title and reached the singles final at Wimbledon, the first Briton to do so in 17 years.

Buxton also won the women's singles title at the 1953 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

After suffering a serious hand condition in late 1956 (tenosynovitis), Buxton was forced to retire following the 1957 season at the age of 22.

Buxton's Judaism played a role throughout her career. Her religious background prevented full acceptance within the tennis world from an early age.

After Buxton won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon with an African-American partner Althea Gibson, one English newspaper reported the event with a story titled "Minorities Win". "It was in very small type", said Buxton, "lest anyone should see it". Contradictory information surrounds the issue why Buxton was never a member of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in Wimbledon. In one interview she recalled that she herself had refused an offer of honorary membership to the club, whereas in another she stated she had not refused it. She was a guest of the club at the Championships in 2014 with seating in the Royal Box. Buxton said in 2004: "I think the anti-Semitism is still there. The mere fact that I'm not a member is a full sentence that speaks for itself." The chairman of the club said he could not comment until he investigated further and it was reported in 2019 that the club explained that membership was a private matter and strongly refuted that race or religion play a factor.

In 2009, Buxton remarked that "I wish [tennis] still wasn't such an elite sport", Buxton said. "I wish we could bring it down to a common baseline. It's going that way. It's still not there."

Later life and legacy Buxton was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. In 2015, the Black Tennis Hall of Fame inducted Buxton, honoring her for her doubles partnership and friendship with Althea Gibson as well as her efforts to raise funds for the ailing Gibson near the end of her life.

Buxton wrote the tennis books Tackle Lawn Tennis This Way (1958), Starting Tennis (1975), and Winning Tennis: Doubles Tactics (1980).

Buxton founded the Angela Buxton Tennis Centre in Hampstead Garden Suburb. In later years, she divided her time between Altrincham and Florida, where she kept a winter home and regularly attended tournaments and mentored players. She died on 14 August 2020, two days short of her 86th birthday, at her home in Fort Lauderdale.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 runner-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreRef.Loss 1956 Wimbledon Grass Shirley Fry 3–6, 1–6

Doubles (2 titles) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreRef.Win 1956 French Championships Clay Althea Gibson Darlene Hard Dorothy Head Knode 6–8, 8–6, 6–1 Win 1956 Wimbledon Grass Althea Gibson Fay Muller Daphne Seeney 6–1, 8–6

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline