Elizabeth Coulson (née Jelfs; born 28 July 1976) is a British former professional

tennis player 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 cove ...

Biography

Tennis career

Jelfs, who is originally from

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

, won the girls' doubles title at the 1994 Wimbledon Championships. She and South African partner

Nannie de Villiers Nannie de Villiers (born Esmé de Villiers, 5 January 1976) is a former professional tennis player who represented South Africa. She was born in neighbouring Namibia but moved at a young age. De Villiers made her début in 1993, at the small I ...

defeated

Corina Morariu Corina Maria Morariu (born January 26, 1978) is an American former professional tennis player. Morariu (pronounced: mo-RA-R'ju) was born in Detroit, Michigan and is of Romanian descent. She turned professional in 1994. Mainly known as a doubles ...

and

Ludmila Varmužová Ludmila Varmužová (also known as Ludmilla Varmuza; born 25 February 1979) is a retired tennis player who represented the Czech Republic as well as San Marino during her career. As a junior, Varmužová appeared at the finals of all four Grand ...

in the final. The same pair were also runner-up in the girls' doubles at the 1995 US Open. In 1995 she appeared in the main draw of three

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

tournaments in the lead up to Wimbledon. She qualified as a lucky loser for the singles at the British Clay Court Championships, then received a wildcard into the doubles at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

with

Karen Cross Karen Cross (born 19 February 1974) is a left-handed British former tennis player who competed at eight Wimbledon Championships during the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as for the Great Britain Fed Cup team in both 1994 and 1998. During the co ...

, before winning her way through qualifying to play singles in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

. On the back of these performances, she was granted a wildcard spot into the

1995 Wimbledon Championships The 1995 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 109th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...

and was beaten in the first round by

Christina Singer Christina Singer-Bath (born 27 July 1968) is a retired tennis player from Germany. She competed at Wimbledon several times from 1987 to 1999.Clare Wood Clare Jacqueline Wood (born 8 March 1968) is a former British number 1 tennis player from Great Britain who began playing professionally in 1984 and retired in 1998. Over the course of her career, she reached a career-high singles ranking of wo ...

as Britain's top-ranked female player. She played again at Wimbledon in 1998 when she featured in the mixed doubles, partnering

Jamie Delgado Jamie Delgado (born 21 March 1977) is a British tennis coach and former professional player. Delgado has represented Great Britain in the Davis Cup, most recently in 2006. Delgado holds the all-time male record for playing in consecutive Wimb ...

. They made the second round, with a win over

Francisco Montana Francisco Montana (born November 5, 1969) is a former professional tennis player from the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily ...

and

Caroline Schneider Caroline Schneider (born 1 June 1973) is a German professional tennis player. During her career, she won several titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Career highlights On 25 April 1994, Schneider reached her highest doubles ranking: World Number ...

Personal life

Now known by her married name, Coulson, she studied Sports Science/Recreational Management at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

and has worked as an events manager.

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 4 (4 runner-ups)

Doubles: 15 (12 titles, 3 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jelfs, Lizzie 1976 births Living people British female tennis players English female tennis players Wimbledon junior champions Sportspeople from Banbury Tennis people from Oxfordshire Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles