Helen Margaret Fletcher (24 August 1931 – 5 April 2022) was a British

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Fletcher grew up in the Derbyshire town of

Heanor Heanor (/ˈhiːnə/) is a town in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England. It lies north-east of Derby and forms, with the adjacent village of Loscoe, the civil parish and town council-administered area of Heano ...

, attending the local grammar school. She is the youngest of three sisters. Her father, a factory owner, was president of Heanor Town Football Club. A left-handed player, Fletcher active on tour during the 1950s. She won the singles title at the

Surrey Championships The Surrey Championships also known as the Surrey Grass Court Championships and the Surrey County Championships is a defunct tennis tournament played in Surbiton, Surrey, England on outdoor grass courts. It ran for 73 editions from 1890 to 1981 a ...

in Surbiton in 1951, which put her in the frame for

Wightman Cup The Wightman Cup was an annual team tennis competition for women contested from 1923 through 1989 (except during World War II) between teams from the United States and Great Britain. History U.S. player Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman wanted to generate ...

selection. From 1952 to 1954 she represented Great Britain in the annual Wightman Cup against the United States. Fletcher, a

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

doubles semi-finalist, had her best singles performance at the 1954 Wimbledon Championships, where she made it to the quarter-finals. Her run was ended by the second seeded

Doris Hart Doris Hart (June 20, 1925 – May 29, 2015) was an American tennis player from who was active in the 1940s and first half of the 1950s. She was ranked world No. 1 in 1951. She was the fourth player, and second woman, to win a Career Grand Slam in ...

. In November, 1954 she married engineer Michael Barker.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Helen 1931 births 2022 deaths British female tennis players English female tennis players Tennis people from Derbyshire People from Heanor 20th-century British women