Angela Buxton

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Angela Buxton
Country (sports)  United Kingdom
Born (1934-08-16) 16 August 1934 (age 89)
Liverpool, England
Singles
Career record {{#property:P564}}
Grand Slam Singles results
French Open QF (1954)
Wimbledon F (1956)
Doubles
Career record {{#property:P555}}
Grand Slam Doubles results
French Open W (1956)
Wimbledon W (1956)
Medal record
Representing  England
Maccabiah Games
Gold medal – first place 1953 Israel Women's Singles
Gold medal – first place 1957 Israel Women's Singles

Angela Buxton (born 16 August 1934) is an English tennis player. She won the women's doubles title at both the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1956 with Althea Gibson.

Tennis accomplishments

Buxton began playing tennis at a young age.[1] After spending time in London and Los Angeles, in 1954 she earned the British No. 4 ranking.

Buxton then reached the 1955 Wimbledon singles quarterfinals and climbed to World No. 9 in the rankings. She played in Wightman Cup competition for the United Kingdom in 1954, 1955, and 1956.

Buxton had her most successful tennis year in 1956. She won the women's doubles title and reached the singles final at Wimbledon. She won the English Indoor and London Grass Court singles championships and the English Hard Court doubles crown (with Darlene Hard). At the French Championships, she reached the singles semifinals and won the women's doubles title with Althea Gibson, who was the first champion of African descent. Buxton was ranked World No. 5 by World Tennis Magazine and World No. 6 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail.[2]

Maccabiah Games

Buxton won the women's singles title at the 1953 Maccabiah Games for Jewish athletes, easily defeating # 8 world seed Anita Kanter of the United States. She won the singles title again in 1957.

Injury and retirement

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

Judaism and anti-Semitism in her career

Buxton's Judaism played a role throughout her career. She is one of the six founders of the Israel Tennis Centres.

Her religious background prevented full acceptance within the tennis world from an early age.[1] Regarding her experience at the Cumberland Club, she said:

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I had to fill in a form: name, address, telephone number and then religion. I had several lessons there with a guy called Bill Blake, and I kept asking him about membership. Eventually he turned round to me and said, "Look, Angela, please don't keep asking me, you're not going to be able to join the club." I said, "Why not? I'm not good enough?" "No, because you're Jewish." And that was the beginning. It was the first time it (prejudice) had hit me in this country.[1]

No Jewish tennis players were admitted to the All England Lawn Tennis Club until 1952.[3] 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.[4] "I wish it 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."[1][5][6] After Gibson and Buxton won the doubles at Wimbledon, one British newspaper reported the event with a story titled "Minorities Win". "It was in very small type", said Buxton, "lest anyone should see it".[7]

Writing

Buxton wrote the tennis books Tackle Tennis This Way, Starting Tennis, and Winning Tennis and Doubles Tactics.

Halls of Fame

Buxton was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.[1] In 2014 she was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[8][9] 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.[10]

Grand Slam singles final

Runner-up (1)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1956 Wimbledon United States Shirley Fry Irvin 6–3, 6–1

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Tournament 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 Career SR
Australian Championships A A A A A 0 / 0
French Championships A A QF 3R SF 0 / 3
Wimbledon 1R 4R 4R QF F 0 / 5
U.S. Championships A A A 3R A 0 / 1
SR 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 9

A = did not participate in the tournament.

SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Buxton, Angela," Jews in Sports, accessed 12 March 2014.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Siriginia, Saraswathi, "Wimbledon Rewind: How Angela Buxton and Althea Gibson Broke Barriers in 1956", Bleacher Report, 6/16/09, accessed 6/29/09
  4. ↑ [Schoenfeld, Bruce, "The Match: Althea Gibson & Angela Buxton: How Two Outsiders—One Black, the Other Jewish—Forged a Friendship and Made Sports History"] (2004), pp. 279–80, Amistad, ISBN 0-06-052652-1, ISBN 978-0-06-052652-8, accessed 6/29/09
  5. ↑ Slater, Robert, "Great Jews in Sports", Jonathan David Publishers, 2005, ISBN 0-8246-0453-9, ISBN 978-0-8246-0453-0
  6. ↑ Giles, Juanita, "No Jews allowed: UAE bows to 'neighborhood' pressure" The Hook, 2/26/09, accessed 6/29/09
  7. ↑ Henderson, Jon and O'Donnell, Matthew , "Angela Buxton & Althea Gibson," Connections: Hidden British Memories, 7/8/01, accessed 6/29/09
  8. ↑ [1]
  9. ↑ [2]
  10. ↑ [3]

External links

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