Anne Keothavong

Keothavong was born in Hackney in London, to parents who had fled from their wartorn home country of Laos in the 1970s.

Her father, Somsak, encouraged her to play short tennis from an early age.

Her mother's name is Vathana and she has two brothers: James, who is a tennis umpire, and Mark.

She also has a sister, Lena.

Anne Viensouk Keothavong (born 16 September 1983) is a British former tennis player.

Keothavong played her first match on the ITF Junior Circuit in February 1996, at age 12, and her last in August 2001.

In singles, she won one title at the LTA Junior International Tournament – Bisham Abbey where she beat compatriot Elena Baltacha in the final.

Keothavong played her first professional match on the ITF Women's Circuit in April 1998, at age 14, when she fell in the first round of qualifying for a $10k tournament in Birmingham.

That year she played only two more matches (in the qualifying tournaments for $10k events in Hatfield, Hertfordshire and Felixstowe) and lost both of them.

She finished the year without a world ranking.

All three of these were in 1999 and all three were partnering Elena Baltacha.

During May 1999, Keothavong played in a total of five ITF tournaments with her best result being in the $10k event in Sunderland where she won three matches to qualify and then reached the second round.

In the other four events, she either lost in the first round or qualifying stages.

Her final ranking of the year was world No. 702.

In 2000, Keothavong played ten ITF events, losing in the qualifying stages in one, round one in three others, the second round four times (once as a lucky loser) and the quarterfinal in the $50k tournament in Cardiff.

The other tournament she entered was the qualifying event for Wimbledon in which she participated courtesy of a wildcard.

She beat Eva Martincová in round one of qualifying before losing to Yuka Yoshida.

She improved her ranking to world No. 377.

In April 2001, aged 17, she became, until Katie Swan in 2016, the youngest player ever to play in the Fed Cup for the British team, and she is second (alongside Elena Baltacha) to Virginia Wade's record for most Fed Cup ties played for the Great Britain with 39.

She also reached a total of three semifinals (one of which was at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships where she was beaten by Dinara Safina, the future world number one, who like Keothavong, went on to reach a higher ranking in seniors than in juniors) and ten quarterfinals.

2001 started well for Keothavong; in her first tournament of the year she won the title by beating compatriot Emily Webley-Smith in the quarterfinals and Elodie Le Bescond in the final.

She then reached the quarterfinals of her next tournament, the $10k event in Tipton.

In February, she reached the semifinals in Sutton, London ($25k) as a qualifier.

She played in the Fed Cup for the first time in April and lost all three of her singles rubbers in straight sets.

In June, she was given wildcards into the qualifying draws for the Birmingham Classic (where she was beaten in the first round of qualifying) and the Eastbourne International (where she reached the second round of qualifying) and the main draw of Wimbledon.

She faced Janet Lee in round one and lost.

In September and October, she reached three ITF quarterfinals (one $50k, one $25k and one $10k) and one semifinal ($25k).

Her world ranking at the end of 2001 was No. 268.

In her career, she won a total of 28 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 48 (achieved February 2009).

She also reached the semifinals of six WTA International tournaments, and the semifinals of one Premier tournament.

Keothavong was British No. 1 and in 2009 became the first British player to make the WTA top 50 since 1993.

Keothavong announced her retirement on 24 July 2013.

After that, she became a member of BT Sport's tennis coverage team, alongside Martina Navratilova and fellow British ex-number one Sam Smith.

In junior doubles, she won one tournament, the 13th Salik Open, and lost in the final of two others: the LTA International Junior Tournament – Bisham Abbey and the 11th Malaysian International Junior Championships.

Keothavong married Andrew Bretherton on 28 February 2015.

Keothavong attended Kingsland Secondary School in Hackney.

At the age of seven, she took up tennis at Hackney Downs and Highbury Fields.

Her preferred surface was hardcourt.

In 2017, Keothavong became Fed Cup captain for Great Britain, leading the team to win all four ties played in the Europe/Africa Zone Group I.

She continued as captain for the 2018 and 2019 Fed Cup, winning promotion in April 2019 to World Group II for the first time in 26 years.