John Barrett is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 former tennis player, commentator

Sportscaster

In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...

, and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

.

Life and career

Barrett born in North London

North London

North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

 and educated at University College School

University College School

University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...

 in Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

. As a tennis competitor, he played in 21 consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1950 and 1970, and at his best was ranked as his country's fifth best player. He twice played for Great Britain in the Davis Cup

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

 during the 1950s. Towards the end of his playing career from 1965 to 1968, he was Director of the Lawn Tennis Association's training squad, and formally qualified as an LTA coach in 1969. The same year, he began editing the new World of Tennis

World of Tennis

World of Tennis was the International Tennis Federation's official tennis annual until it was replaced by The ITF Year. It was published annually beginning in 1969 and was edited by John Barrett...

, the official annual for the International Tennis Federation

International Tennis Federation

The International Tennis Federation is the governing body of world tennis, made up of 205 national tennis associations.It was established as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by 12 national associations meeting at a conference in Paris, France on 1 March 1913...

, and retained the position until it was replaced by The ITF Year

The ITF Year

The ITF Year is the official yearbook of the International Tennis Federation . It replaced World of Tennis, edited by John Barrett as the ITF's official tennis annual. Its first edition, The ITF Year 2001, described the activities of the ITF in 2001 but was published in January 2002...

in 2001.

In 1971 he began working as a television commentator, and following the retirement of tennis doyen Dan Maskell

Dan Maskell

Daniel "Dan" Maskell was an English tennis player, who later became even better known as a radio and television commentator on the game, and was known as the BBC's "voice of tennis"....

 following 1991 Wimbledon

1991 Wimbledon Championships

The 1991 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on :grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon in London in England...

, he inherited the mantle of the "voice of tennis", an epithet

Epithet

An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...

 he retained until his retirement from the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 2006. He continues to work occasionally for networks in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and is the tennis correspondent for the Financial Times

Financial Times

The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....

.

He has been married to the former French, Australian

Australian Open

The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...

, and Wimbledon champion Angela Mortimer

Angela Mortimer

Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer Barrett is a former World No. 1 British female tennis player. She was born in Plymouth, Devon, England...

 since 1967, and they have two children.

Selected bibliography

• World of Tennis (1969–2001)
• Tennis and Racket Games (1975), ISBN 978-0-35605-093-5
• Play Tennis With Rosewall (with Ken Rosewall
  Ken Rosewall
  Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam...
  
  ) (1975) ISBN 978-0-87980-305-6
• 100 Wimbledon Championships: A Celebration (1986) ISBN 978-0-00218-220-1
• From Where I Sit (with Dan Maskell) (1988) ISBN 978-0-00218-293-5
• Oh! I Say (with Dan Maskell) (1989), ISBN 978-0-00637-434-3