Celebration Time: Men Who Made Tennis Headlines at Wimbledons Past

The Wimbledon archives carry the names of some of greatest players of all time. The very nature and history of this event has ensured that it is the one title every player aspires to.

Those archives will record the first triumphant steps of men who have gone on to become some of the greatest of all time: the Perrys, the Federers, the Sampras’, and the Agassis.

Those same archives will mark the achievements of individuals who enjoyed the limelight of Wimbledon perhaps only briefly. This is celebration of a handful of those outstanding performances, by both the famous and not-so-famous.

And to ensure it stays within the living memory—just—of this writer, it opens the archives after the start of the open era.

A further word of warning: a couple of those who have made the final cut did so because they are personal favorites. The first and the last are top of that personal pile and have therefore been indulged at a little greater length.

And to open, no more worthy player….

Arthur Ashe 1975

The graceful and gracious Arthur Ashe had won both the US Open and the Australian title in 1968 and 1970 respectively.

He’d been a Grand Slam finalist as early as 1966, so his pedigree on grass—the dominant surface at the time—was proven.

But at Wimbledon in 1975, his chances of success against No. 1 seed and defending champion were considered to be slim.

The contrast between the young, aggressive Jimmy Connors and the gentle, self-effacing Ashe would ensure this became one of the most compelling finals in recent history.

Ashe had lost several sets on his way to the final, Connors none.

Ashe, at 31, was also giving almost 10 years to his opponent.

But if the crowd’s affection and admiration were added to the equation that day, Ashe was surely destined to come out on top.

What was written on the scrap of paper that he consulted at the changeovers that audience did not know. What they did know was that Ashe played tennis of supreme elegance, grace and intelligence, and they loved it.

Perhaps it was their wish to reclaim—albeit for a short while—the finesse of old-fashioned tennis that had been so brutally cast out by Connor’s annihilation of Ken Rosewall the year before.

Ashe’s low slice shots, outward curving serves and subtle pace saw Connors flounder to a 6-1, 6-1 deficit, but the latter surged back with 7-5 third set. Ashe, though, stuck to his game plan and sealed the victory at 6-4. In doing so, he became the first black male champion at Wimbledon.

Ashe will be remembered for his civil rights achievements, his efforts in publicising AIDS (which he contracted from blood transfusions during major heart surgery), and for his early death at just 49.

But he will be remembered above all for his grace, both in tennis and in character.

John McEnroe 1977

The sullen, expressive and uniquely-gifted John McEnroe burst onto Wimbledon’s turf as an 18-year-old amateur (he did not turn pro until the next year).

He worked through the qualifying tournament into the main draw and advanced all the way to the semi-finals, establishing possibly the best ever performance by a qualifier and an amateur at a Grand Slam tournament.

He lost to Jimmy Connors 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, but a stake had been claimed. By 1979, his variety of shot, his touch, and his passion had yielded a first Grand Slam (the US), and he reached the finals at Wimbledon from 1980 through to 1984, exacting revenge on Connors in a near whitewash in 1984.

McEnroe, always one to buck the trend, repeated his 1977 charge 15 years later.

The unseeded (No. 30) 33-year-old again reached the semis, taking down Pat Cash in a second round marathon, then the 16th and the ninth seeds.

He then fell to the eventual champion, Andre Agassi, but what a Wimbledon swan-song!

Chris Lewis 1983

New Zealander Chris Lewis had won the junior title at Wimbledon in 1975 but it took him until 1983 to really make a mark on the senior radar.

Lewis’ great strengths were his fitness and speed. His training regimes, according to his ATP biog, eclipsed those of many of his contemporaries and it was this quickness and speed of reaction that eventually brought him to the high-spot of his career.

By the time he met McEnroe in the Wimbledon final, the unseeded Lewis had taken out both the ninth seed and 12th seeds. But the tennis of McEnroe was a different affair.

Lewis lost 6–2 6–2 6–2, but sealed his place in the archives as only the seventh unseeded man to reach a Wimbledon final.

Boris Becker 1985

The force of nature that was Boris Becker stole several records in one swoop at Wimbledon. At just 17 years and 227 days, he became the youngest player, the first unseeded player, and the first German to win the men’s title.

Although he had entered the tournament the previous year, it was in 1985 that he took Wimbledon by storm.

His physical presence was overpowering, his speed and strength awe-inspiring, and his sheer application and commitment to each shot was extraordinary.

Few players before or since have thrown so much energy into their overhead shots, or thrown themselves so relentlessly around the court.

The 17-year-old took five sets to beat seeds seven and 16, then four sets to defeat Henri Leconte in the quarters and Anders Jarryd in the semis. Yet he had ample power left to beat eighth seed Kevin Curren in the three and a quarter hour final, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4.

Becker came back and did it all again in 1986, as if to prove that his special brand of uninhibited exuberance was not just a flash in the pan. Now seeded four, it took him considerably fewer sets to run out the eventual winner and deny Ivan Lendl one of only two chances to claim the Wimbledon title.

Becker now graces tennis commentary boxes with his quiet, urbane, and often acerbic personality. But those who remember his first Wimbledon title will preserve a very different image of him!

Richard Krajicek and MaliVai Washington 1996

The 1996 final and doubly unexpected, shared as it was by the Dutchman Richard Krajicek and American MaliVai Washington.

The most noteworthy element in the 1996 story was Krajicek’s defeat, in straight sets, of Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals. This was to be Sampras' only singles defeat at Wimbledon between 1993 and 2000.

Krajicek had never previously progressed beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon, and had lost in the first round in the two previous years. He only gained a seeding at the very last minute when the seventh seed, Thomas Muster, pulled out with injury.

Though Krajicek’s game was not one of the most exciting on the tour, he had one big weapon, a huge serve. A 6ft 5in frame and text-book action allowed the Dutchman to make inroads not only on the grass (he reached the semis at Wimbledon again in 1998) but also the hard courts of the US, where he reached the quarters three times.

He won the 1996 title in straight sets, 6–3, 6–4, 6–3, to become the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon. Indeed he dropped just one set throughout this Wimbledon campaign. Had he not been plagued by knee surgery, he may well have gone on to further Grand Slam success.

The match marked Washington’s only Grand Slam final. That belies a career that saw him spend most of 1996 in the top 20. But he too was forced into early retirement by injury and so made little further impact in Wimbledon’s annals.

Goran Ivanisevic 2001

The long-awaited victory of the emotional and popular Goran Ivanisevic remains one of the highlights of recent Wimbledon history.

Three times a runner-up in 1992, 1994 and 1998, he looked destined to end his playing career without a single Slam. But in 2001, his 14th successive year at Wimbledon, the tennis gods took pity on him and awarded the world No. 125 a wild card just ahead of his 30th birthday and rumoured retirement.

He went on to became the first wildcard to win the men’s title,

To add to the drama of the occasion, he played the equally popular Pat Rafter who was also bidding for his first Wimbledon title, having reached the semis and the final in the previous two years.

The Rafter game was a thing of beauty on grass, the archetypal serve and volley game of grace and precision, and enhanced by smooth all-court movement.

The Ivanisevic game, too, was suited to grass: a huge player delivering huge serves. Less easy on the eye, but an effective and powerful style.

And the big, volatile personality of the Croat, often his own undoing, appealed to the Wimbledon crowd. It particularly appealed to the crowd on “people’s Monday”, the only final to be played in its entirety on a Monday. And the reason? His five-set marathon against Wimbledon favourite Tim Henman had been stretched, by rain, across three days.

So the match set the Centre Court alight, going all the way to 9-7 in the fifth set. It’s hard to imagine just how elated that crowd would have become had it been Henman who came through the semi-final.

As it is, few would now deny that Ivanisevic’s victory was one of the most popular in Wimbledon history.

Jonas Bjorkman 2006

In 2006, at the age of 34, and with no expectations of success, Jonas Bjorkman looked like one of the happiest Wimbledon semi-finalists in living memory

In beating 14th seed Radek Stepanek 7-6, 4-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in his quarter-final, he became the oldest Wimbledon men's semi-finalist since Jimmy Connors, and wrapped his arms around himself in a shared hug of gratitude with the crowd.

Ranked just 59 in the world, and with retirement looming, it was an unlikely scenario, but one that temporarily projected him to a ranking of 29.

Bjorkman had also come through long five-setters in the second and fourth rounds. It was no surprise, therefore, that the Swede was made to look his age by Roger Federer in a match that lasted just 77 minutes (6-2, 6-0, 6-2), but even that did not wipe the smile from his face.

Despite nine Grand Slam doubles titles, this particular achievement was the highlight of 15 consecutive years in the Wimbledon singles draw, and he enjoyed every minute.

Bjorn Borg 1976

Borg an unlikely winner? Well at the start of his Wimbledon career, before
establishing a record to which his followers would aspire, he was indeed an underdog.

In his first victorious year, 1976, he was up against the charismatic and exciting Ilie Nastase who brought the most complex array of gifts to tennis, had American and French titles, and possessed the most perfect game for grass.

Borg, on the other hand, had titles from Paris, but his ability to translate his clay-court baseline game to grass was doubtful. And he had fallen in the quarter-finals in Paris in 1976.

But the quality of the Borg game, his passing shots, his unusual—at the time—double-handed backhand, and his now legendary speed and fitness were deployed to devastating effect in that first Wimbledon final.

He denied Nastase in straight sets to become the then youngest male in the modern era to lift the trophy.

From the standpoint of 2009, it’s hard to recognise the achievement this represented at the time.

Borg adapted one carefully-honed style of play in the week or so between clay and grass, to attack some of the outstanding serve-volleyers of the day: the likes of Roscoe Tanner, Brian Gottfried and, in subsequent years, Connors and John MacEnroe.

Borg himself attacked the net after his first serve—not a natural play for him—but then counter-attacked with his stunning all-court game.

What he did was to lay down the template that today’s best players—Nadal and Federer amongst them—now follow.