Barker made a surprise appearance at this year\u2019s tournament to interview Andy Murray<\/a> on Centre Court to mark his emotional farewell from this year\u2019s Wimbledon and his retirement from the sport.<\/p>\n Greeted with rapturous applause, it was clear the crowds had missed Barker \u2013 but could she be making a return to presenting the anticipated summer tennis tournament?<\/p>\n Speaking to The Mirror<\/a>, Barker admitted: \u201cYes, I would. I loved it. I loved the people and I didn\u2019t want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cBut you start hearing rumours of what is happening and [the BBC] obviously wants the next generation, and when you start hearing those rumours you think, \u2018Maybe it\u2019s time to get out while they still want me rather than being shoved out of the back door.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe sacking from A Question Of Sport hurt so much that I thought, \u2018I don\u2019t want to go through that again.\u2019 I wanted to get out at the top. We are doing the A Question Of Sport theatre show next year. I have my WhatsApp\u00a0group with\u00a0Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson. We\u2019ll be friends for life.\u201d<\/p>\n Barker left A Question of Sport in 2020 after the BBC\u2019s plans to revamp the quiz show, an exit decision that Barker later admitted that the BBC could have \u201chandled better\u201d. It was because of that that Barker then stepped down from her Wimbledon post two years later.<\/p>\n A Question of Sport has since been cancelled by the BBC due to \u201cfunding challenges\u201d, it was announced last December, after Paddy McGuinness took over from Barker in the lead presenting role.<\/p>\n But it was also her informed commentary at Wimbledon after her own impressive tennis career that has been sorely missed on television screens. It was an emotional goodbye for Barker at the time, who was teary as she presented her final segments back in 2022.<\/p>\n Since then, the Wimbledon highlights show<\/a> and live coverage has been spearheaded by Clare Balding and Qasa Alom.<\/p> Speaking to The Telegraph<\/a> just a couple of weeks ago, Barker also opened up about her decision to exit the BBC\u2019s Wimbledon role, saying: \u201cI just sensed that, as you get older, you\u2019ve got not many years left. And when you\u2019re hearing that they\u2019re having meetings about who\u2019s to replace you\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough they offered me a contract, I suddenly thought over those three years [on the contract extension], will it be a case of, \u2018We\u2019ll just diminish Sue\u2019s role a little so that the transition is slightly easier.\u2019 And I didn\u2019t want to be diminished. I\u2019d rather go out doing the top job.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, maybe it came a couple of years before I was ready to do it. But in hindsight, it was absolutely the right time. And I couldn\u2019t have picked a better year.\u201d<\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Sport<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Barker headed up the BBC Wimbledon coverage for 30 years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":54523,"template":"","categories":[1,7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/sue-barker-would-return-to-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage-i-didnt-want-to-leave-scaled.jpg",2560,1706,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/sue-barker-would-return-to-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage-i-didnt-want-to-leave-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/sue-barker-would-return-to-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage-i-didnt-want-to-leave-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/sue-barker-would-return-to-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage-i-didnt-want-to-leave-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/sue-barker-would-return-to-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage-i-didnt-want-to-leave-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/sue-barker-would-return-to-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage-i-didnt-want-to-leave-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/sue-barker-would-return-to-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage-i-didnt-want-to-leave-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Barker headed up the BBC Wimbledon coverage for 30 years.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/54521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sue](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/07\/Wimbledon-Andy-Murray-Sue-Barker-b6a1974.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Celebrity")
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