Christine Truman: "I’m very lucky to have the quality of life that I do"
Former tennis star Christine Truman is acing healthy living in her eighties. She talks tournament prize money and gives her tips for Wimbledon 2026.
Former tennis star Christine Truman is acing healthy living in her eighties. She talks tournament prize money and gives her tips for Wimbledon 2026.
Most mornings at this time of year, Christine Truman Janes nimbly descends the 47 steps from her house to the beach in her Suffolk hometown for a swim in the sea. At the age of 85, the one-time darling of Wimbledon’s Centre Court is a poster girl for healthy living, yet she humbly tries to play down her role-model status.
"I’m very lucky to have the quality of life that I do," she says.
Conscious that her sister died aged 66, her mother at 77 and her husband Gerry Janes (a former Wasps rugby player) five years ago after suffering from Alzheimer’s, Christine’s philosophy is that "we should ride the bumps. Don’t dwell on problems – just pull yourself together and get on with it."
It’s a refreshing attitude, probably rather different from many of today’s players with their nutritionists, mind coaches, physiotherapists, osteopaths, business agents and Instagram content creators.
This year’s Wimbledon Ladies’ champion will get £3 million in prize money and current world No 4 Iga Świątek’s brand value is said to be £390 million. Yet for her Wimbledon final appearance 65 years ago, Christine merely got a voucher for £15 to be spent at Lillywhites sports shop on Piccadilly.
Other tournament prizes included a Smith Corona typewriter and Remington shaver.
"The most I ever earned for a match was £15. Today’s money from tennis would have been nice but a happy marriage, four lovely children and my health are worth more than millions," she has said.
A Blitz baby born in 1941, Christine reached world No 2 in 1959, when she won the French and Italian Opens and reached the final of the US Open. At the age of 20 in 1961 she lost (through injury) the Wimbledon Ladies’ final to fellow Brit Angela Mortimer.
Christine, whose mum made her daughter’s first tennis dress from pillow slips, beat all the greats of her time – Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, Althea Gibson, Maria Bueno.
Those were the days of wooden racquets, players travelling to Wimbledon on the London Underground, no sitting down at change-ofends, and wrist exercises using a brick attached to a piece of string.
Christine’s fiercely proud mother’s life-view – apart from "stop playing drop-shots, they’ll give you a mean face" – was: "Don’t make a fuss, get on with it".
That’s advice Christine believes current British No 1 Emma Raducanu should heed. She is worried by the 23-year-old’s injury record. "I am concerned why she had to stop two recent matches to have her heart rate tested. It is scary to think she was on a tennis court if she had a heart issue."
Christine, though, is sympathetic about the way Raducanu has been seduced by the financial side of her success – such as her reported £2.6 million-a-year deal with clothing label Uniqlo.
But pointedly, she says that seven Grand Slamswinner Carlos Alcaraz "is not seen as a celebrity".
Another aspect of modern tennis that confounds Christine is the so-called "comfort" – or loo – break. "Does the body really need a loo break – or is it tactical?" she comments.
Christine hopes that Raducanu’s on-court fortunes will turn around but believes her British rival Sonay Kartal, 24, has more chance at this year’s Wimbledon. Kartal, the daughter of a Turkish kebab shop owner in Brighton, is the kind of player that Christine would like us to see more of.
Rather than coming from a tennis background, she has made it on her own with local help. For Christine, a key reason for the lack of British success in Grand Slams these days is the fact that parents are understandably wary of letting their talented children devote all their time to the sport; instead, they want them to keep up their academic studies.
Christine says: "I bet that Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have never ever done any senior school exams! On the plus side, scholarships to US schools are proving very successful."
Also to blame, she says, is the fact that so little tennis is broadcast on free-to-air television.
"As a youngster, I found it inspirational to watch the stars on TV and it tempted me to copy what they did," she says.
However, she knows of three lucky youngsters who have received the privilege of special coaching – Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte. Christine says she has been told that they have been given practice sessions with the legendary Roger Federer.
Remarkably, Christine played her whole tennis career with only one properly functioning eye. She has been virtually blind in her left eye since birth. This was only discovered when she failed an obligatory test before hiring a car in Australia.
Christine had detected some visual impairment at school, but her mother told her not to be ridiculous and get on with it. In 1974, Christine retired from tennis. Her last Wimbledon appearance, aged 32, was a match in 1973 against a 16-year-old Martina Navratilova playing her first Wimbledon.
She had suffered an Achilles tendon issue that began when she went through the wooden floor of the British High Commission in Jamaica while wearing high heels.
Christine then became a tennis commentator for BBC Radio for 34 years, coached the sport in Suffolk and wrote children’s books about a tennis-playing character called Dilly.
What you won’t catch her doing is playing padel (a mix of tennis and squash) or pickleball (which uses solid paddles and a perforated plastic ball). Many hope they may attract a new generation to tennis, but Christine is appalled.
"Don’t talk to me about pickleball and padel!" she says. "They don’t feel like a real game. Though I can see they are sociable and I’ve been told that when you are 90, you can play pickleball with a seven-year-old because the abilities are matched. My concern is that I don’t want tennis to be sidelined."
Padel aside, Christine leads a very active and fulfilling life. Twice a week, she plays golf, and swims in the sea regularly from April to November.
She once excited the interest of social scientists searching for the happiest person in Britain, having scored positive marks in each of their ten categories – most importantly, having a loving family, an active social and physical life, and living in East Anglia beside the sea. (Sea air is rich in negative ions, which are believed to improve mood, reduce stress and raise serotonin levels.) And she takes healthy living fads with a pinch of salt – relying on her own trusty routine of no lie-ins, a proper breakfast, morning coffee and an occasional treat of sticky toffee pudding.
Smiling, she says her diet, which often lacks vegetables, would be approved of by Bear Grylls, who gave up veganism because he said it made him weak. At the height of her tennis career, her mother made sure her 6ft-tall daughter ate steak at least once a week.
Christine also recalls her mum swore by the effectiveness of nutritional supplement Sanatogen to "keep going", the laxative Petrolagar, and Basilicon ointment for spots.
Today, it’s clear Christine still thrives on life, even as she plays down being a poster girl for healthy living.
Indeed, despite her antipathy towards pickleball, there’s probably more chance of us seeing her eventually agree to play the game when she’s 90 than seeing a British woman in this year’s Wimbledon final.
(Hero image credit: Alun Callendar)
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