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British tennis great Angela Buxton dies age 85

Enis Koylu

Updated 17/08/2020 at 16:40 GMT

Former Grand Slam doubles champion Angela Buxton has died at the age of 85, the Lawn Tennis Association has confirmed.

Angela Buxton Althea Gibson

Image credit: Getty Images

Buxton was one of the game's leading doubles players in the 1950s, winning the French Open and Wimbledon in 1956, where she partnered the American Althea Gibson, the first African American Slam champion.
She also reached the singles final of Wimbledon in 1956 but, at the age of 22, she was forced to retire the following season after developing the serious hand condition tenosynovitis.
Buxton was of Jewish descent and frequently fought against prejudice in the tennis world. Her doubles partnership with Gibson was trailblazing and she was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in 2015.
After winning the Wimbledon doubles title, she applied frequently for membership of the All England Club, blaming her repeated omission on anti-Semitism in 2004.
Buxton was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981, having won the Women's Singles gold medal at the 1953 Maccabiah Games.
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