Calling the shots

Rewind to 1971, and Sue Barker’s coach is sending his 15-year-old tennis protégé to a junior championship in France, alone, with a one-way ticket, telling her she’d have to win the money to pay for her return fare. Sue hides in the grounds of the hosting tennis club overnight, to avoid paying for a hotel. The next day, she walks onto court and smashes it. Five years later, and she’s Britain’s No 1. The same combination of grit, grace and talent took her to the top of live Sports TV. And now, after four decades on camera encouraging other legends to share their stories, she is telling her own. Going all in for her once-only autobiography, Sue takes us inside the showbizzy world of 70s and early 80s tennis, dating the stars, hitting the headlines. She reveals the battles she fought for hard-won success in two careers.