| Biography | John Lloyd (born 27 August 1954, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England) is a former professional tennis player and current television commentator.
During his career, he reached one Grand Slam singles final and won three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. He was the first husband of the former top woman player Chris Evert and is the younger brother of the former British Davis Cup captain David Lloyd.
At the Australian Open in December 1977, Lloyd became the first British male tennis player in the Open era to reach a Grand Slam singles final. He lost in five sets to America's Vitas Gerulaitis 63, 76, 57, 36, 62. No other British player reached a Grand Slam final for 20 years, until British-Canadian Greg Rusedski reached the US Open final in 1997. In 1984 he reached the quarter-finals of the US Open. Lloyd never progressed beyond the third round in singles play at Wimbledon.
Though he never won a Grand Slam singles titles, Lloyd did win three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles partnering Australia's Wendy Turnbull, beginning with the French Open mixed doubles in 1982. The pair finished runners-up in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon that year, and then went on to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles crown in both 1983 and 1984.
Lloyd's career-high singles ranking was World No. 21 in 1978. His career-high doubles ranking was World No. 34 in 1986. As a player, he represented the British Davis Cup team for 11 years.
As his playing career came to an end, Lloyd stayed within the tennis world, finding work as a coach and television commentator, and appearing on the veterans circuit.
In 2006, Lloyd was appointed the captain of Great Britain's Davis Cup team, replacing Jeremy Bates. Lloyd's reign started very well, with successive victories taking the team back into the World Group, but after the retirement of both Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman in 2007 the team suffered five successive defeats, their worst run in Davis Cup history, to drop back down to the third tier of the competition. Lloyd resigned as coach in mid-2010.
Since the 1990s, Lloyd has been a commentator and analyst for the BBC's tennis coverage, particularly at Wimbledon. Lloyd is known for his trademark catchphrases, using the analogy of food and drink to describe tennis shots. For example, if a shot is too weak he will claim that it was "undercooked" or "needed more mustard." Conversely, if a shot is overhit he will describe it as "overcooked," having "too much juice," or "having too much mustard."
He worked for Sky Sports on their coverage of the US Open 2009.
In 1979, Lloyd married the World No. 1 woman player, American Chris Evert (who became Chris Evert-Lloyd). The media-styled "golden couple" of tennis enjoyed several years in the limelight before a separation, a short-lived reconciliation, and eventual divorce in 1987. Because of Evert's higher profile tennis career, Lloyd was sometimes jokingly referred to in the press as "Mr. Evert".
Lloyd is a supporter of the football team Wolverhampton Wanderers. It is because of Lloyd's influence that Andy Murray is also a Wolves fan and is often seen wearing the Wolves shirt that was presented to him by Lloyd |