The first British woman to reach a Wimbledon final in 17 years, Angela Buxton won the Wimbledon Doubles Championship with Althea Gibson in 1956.

October 1953 marked a turning point in Buxton’s then modest playing career when she won the Maccabiah Games Singles title, easily defeating number eight World seed Anita Kanter of the
United States, who had recently beaten number one World seed Doris Hart.

Inspired by her success in Israel, Buxton was able to earn a number four British ranking in 1954. One year later, she reached the 1955 Wimbledon Singles quarterfinals and the ninth spot in World rankings. Buxton played in Wightman Cup competition for Great
Britain in 1954, 1955, and 1956.

She was ranked fifth in the World in 1956, after capturing the Wimbledon Doubles and reaching the Singles finals, taking the English Indoor and London Grass Court Singles Championships, the
English Hard Court Doubles crown with Darlene Hard, reaching the semifinals of the French Singles, and winning the French Open Doubles with Althea Gibson.

It was Buxton’s best competitive year. She was at the top of her game in late 1956 when she suffered a severe wrist injury. Although she managed to win the French Doubles and Maccabiah Singles titles in 1957, her playing career was prematurely curtailed.

Angela Buxton has authored several books on tennis, Tackle Tennis This Way, Starting Tennis, and Winning Tennis and Doubles Tactics. She is one of the six founders of the Israel Tennis Centres.

From the LA Times: "Angela Buxton, doubles partner of first Black player to win tennis title, dies."

"The International Tennis Federation announced the death of Buxton on Monday, describing her as 'an early pioneer of equal rights.'" Read the full article.