Wimbledon 2009: top 50 champions - Telegraph
Wimbledon
Wimbledon 2009: top 50 champions
The All England Club has hosted many memorable moments over the years and has    had many great champions. Here Mark Hodgkinson, Tennis Correspondent,    profiles the greatest 50.
 
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In fashion: France's Rene Lacoste won two men's singles titles in the twenties Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
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Heaven seventeen: five years ago Maria Sharapova burst into the public consciousness after beating Serena Williams on Centre Court to win the women's singles title at the age of 17 Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
Simply the best? Rod Laver competing in the men's singles in 1971 Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
Winner: Steffi Graf lifted the Ladies's singles title seven times Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
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Trendsetter: Billy Jean King was the first wearer of glasses to win a Wimbledon title Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
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Different look: in 1967 John Newcombe was first champion with a moustache since 1909 Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
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Triple crown: Boris Becker became the youngest ever male winner, the first unseeded champion, and the first German winner of the men's  title in 1985 Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
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Standout: Arthur Ashe is the only male black Wimbledon champion after defeating Jimmy Connors in the 1975 final Photo: PA
 
Bounding Basque: Jean Borotra in action on centre court in 1935 Photo: GETTY IMAGES
 
Swede success: Bjorn Borg brought his own unique style to the Championships Photo: SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
 
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First of many: Martina Navratilova is congratulated by The Duchess of Kent on her 1978 title Photo: ANTHONY MARSHALL
By Mark Hodgkinson
9:31PM BST 21 Jun 2009
50. Louise Brough: The American's game was well-suited to grass courts and she scored a hat-trick of titles, from 1948 to 1950, and then added a fourth in 1955.
49. Reggie Doherty: He won four Wimbledon titles to his brother's five, but some have suggested that he was the more talented of the two. His titles were won consecutively, from 1897 to 1900.
48. Laurie Doherty: The last man from Wimbledon to win Wimbledon, Doherty dominated the tournament from 1902 to 1906, as he was the champion for five unbroken years. Doherty was born in the centre of Wimbledon, in a house just across the road from the old tournament venue at Worple Road.
47. Angela Mortimer: When Mortimer won in 1961, it ended a 24-year wait since the previous home champion in the women's tournament, Dorothy Round in 1937. Going into the 2009 tournament, it is 32 years since the last British women's champion, Virginia Wade in 1977, and that stretch without a home winner is going to continue.
46. Pat Cash: It can sometimes feel as though the Australian's playing career is remembered more for his chequered headbands and the way that he celebrated winning Wimbledon in 1987, by climbing up through the Centre Court stands to embrace his father and his coach in the guest box, than for the tennis he played that summer.
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45. Rene Lacoste: The 'Crocodile' lives on, but only as a logo on sportswear. These days, more people probably know Lacoste as a clothing brand rather than a past tennis player. The Frenchman, who was one of the four 'Musketeers' of tennis, won a couple of titles on the lawns of London, in 1925 and in 1928.
44. William Renshaw: If Roger Federer had beaten Rafael Nadal in last summer's final, that would have put the Swiss level with Renshaw on six consecutive Wimbledon titles. But Federer didn't, so Renshaw is the only man to have ever won six in a row on the grass, from 1881 to 1886. Renshaw won again in 1889, finishing with seven titles. Still, the depth of competition in the nineteenth century can hardly be compared with the quality of the modern game, which is why Renshaw is not higher up the list.
43. Stan Smith: When Smith, who was universally known throughout tennis as Gentleman Stan, won the Challenge Cup in 1972, it was remarkable for the fact that it was the first men's final to be played on Sunday. The scheduling was down to the rain delays rather than any demands from television executives.
42. Maud Watson: The women's tournament was first staged in 1884, with Watson beating her sister Lilian in the final, while wearing a straw hat. After the First World War, she received an MBE for her nursing work.
41. Ann Jones: With her victory in the summer of 1969, after beating the defending champion Billie Jean King in the final, Jones became the first left-handed woman to win the Venus Rosewater Dish. Just as Fred Perry had switched from table tennis to lawn tennis, Jones had also been a ping pong player before she had her success at the All England Club.
40. Evonne Goolagong: She was the daughter of a sheep shearer, and the family lived in a tin shack in New South Wales, but that didn't stop the Australian of Aboriginal descent from following her dream of playing tennis. The Aboriginal community funded her early tennis career. "The people used to pitch in and pay for the petrol so I could play tournaments in Sydney. The town only had a population of 700 but they used to provide everything for me, including clothes, shoes and rackets," said Goolagong, who won her first Wimbledon title in 1971 by beating Margaret Court, and added a second title in 1980 by defeating Chris Evert.
39. Amelie Mauresmo: Before the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, Mauresmo's talent had never been in doubt, just her mental fortitude.
There was a time when she was known as the choker-in-chief of women's tennis, when it seemed that an hour on the psychologist's couch would have been as useful as an hour on the practice court. But she overcame the doubt, and the doubters, to beat Justin Henin and win her Wimbledon title. "I don't want people to talk about my nerves any more," the Frenchwoman said triumphantly - winning Wimbledon had sealed her career.
38. Manuel Santana: "Grass is for cows," Santana famously said, but that was before he won his Wimbledon title in the summer of 1966 by beating American Dennis Ralston. Santana was the first Spanish man to lift one of those golden Challenge Cups on Centre Courts, and he even managed to convert General Franco to lawn tennis. Previously, Franco had viewed tennis as a game for the rich. But, after Santana's triumph, suddenly Franco wanted to see him (it's not just British politicians who chase sporting bandwagons). Santana proved that grass isn't just for cows, and also brought the sport to the attention of a fascist dictator. All with a smile on his face.
37. Maria Bueno: The lithe and elegant Brazilian brought sex appeal to the Wimbledon lawns, improved the SW19 libido. All the men in the Centre Court crowd fell in love with Bueno after she won her first Wimbledon title in 1959, after which she was given a prize of a clothes voucher and then flown back in a presidential jet to a ticker-tape parade in Sao Paolo. In future years, she titillated Wimbledon by wearing a white dress with a pink lining, and also won two more titles, in 1960 and 1964.
36. Virginia Wade: It's the cardigan that most people remember, Wade having walked out to the 1977 final wearing a natty pink cardy with a monogrammed 'VW' on the front. She peeled that pink cardigan off, and then went out and beat Holland's Betty Stove. It was quite a way to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee year, with the monarch in attendance that day in the Royal Box. Afterwards, the crowd sang 'For she's a jolly fellow', and it wasn't directed at Her Majesty, but at Wade. No British woman has won Wimbledon since, and Wade is as frustrated as anyone by that. British winners are as retro as Wade's pink cardigan.
35. Alice Marble: The American was raped by a stranger when she was 15, but she overcame the trauma of that violent attack to become a professional tennis player. She won her Wimbledon title in 1939, just months before the outbreak of the Second World War. She miscarried her husband's child after a car accident during the war, and a few days later he was killed in action. She attempted suicide, but then recovered and agreed to work as a spy for American intelligence, going on a difficult mission that involved contacting a former lover, a Swiss banker. Marble was shot in the back by a Nazi agent, and was pulled out by American intelligence. She died in 1990, at the age of 77.
34. Althea Gibson: The African-American is one of the most important figures in Wimbledon's history, as she was the first black player, whether male or female, to win the title on the grass of SW19. Born in North Carolina, and raised in Harlem in North Carolina, she had it tough during her tennis education, as she was barred from whites-only clubs and competitions. But Gibson persevered with her tennis, and scored her first Wimbledon title in 1957 and then backed it up by winning again the next year. She lived in poverty for much of her old age, before dying in 2003. Venus and Serena Williams know that they owe much to Gibson.
33. Jana Novotna: The Czech was a popular loser, but she was also a popular winner. In 1993, after losing the final to Steffi Graf, she famously sobbed on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent, and she was denied for a second time in 1997 when losing to Martina Hingis. On that occasion, there were no tears staining the royal jacket, but the duchess was moved to remark to the runner-up: "The third time will be third time lucky." A year later, Novotna beat Nathalie Tauziat and the Venus Rosewater Dish was hers. But there was another quiet word from the Duchess. "I was right," the Duchess told her.
32. Jean Borotra: The Bounding Basque was a ladies' man, and often liked to chase down a wide shot as that would allow him to run into the crowd and sit himself down on a friendly lap. The Frenchman, one of the Four Musketeers who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s, also used to fling his trademark black beret at any mademoiselles who had caught his attention in the Wimbledon crowds.
But, despite his lust for life and for women, Borotra could also play a mean game of tennis. He had an athletic style, bouncing and bounding across the turf, and he was the Wimbledon champion in 1924 and again two years later.
31. Goran Ivanisevic: Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po and Tinky-Winky helped him to victory. The Croat is the only Wimbledon champion to have been inspired by watching tapes of Teletubbies, the children's television programme known for its gibberish and brightly-coloured silliness (well, the only one that we know of). Ivanisevic also proudly spoke of his split personalities - Bad Goran, Good Goran and Emergency Goran.
He ate the same meal at the same restaurant every night during the 2001 Championships, so, never mind his service action, how did his digestive system hold up for a fortnight? Ivanisevic, a semi-final conqueror of Britain's Tim Henman, beat Pat Rafter on a People's Monday, and on a day that highlighted all that was great about tennis.
An anarchic, complicated, charismatic, brilliant champion.
30. Maria Sharapova: One sunny afternoon in the summer of 2004, the 17-year-old Siberian became an international superstar, after beating Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final. With her good looks, this was a tennis victory made in marketing men's heaven, and she has gone to become the world's highest-earning sportswoman. Don't for a moment think that Sharapova doesn't have a sense of her own worth. She is very much a twenty-first century tennis player, a businesswoman as well as an athlete. She is ranked outside the top 50, but she has been bumped up into the seedings, giving her protection in the draw.
29. Bill Tilden: During the 1920s and 1930s, there was no bigger star in tennis than Tilden. He knew that, too. He was a triple champion at the All England Club, scoring the title in 1920, defending it a year later, and winning a third in 1930. But he is remembered as much for his colourful private life. The American was twice imprisoned after gay sex scandals, the first time for having sex with a male teenage prostitute, and the second time for groping a teenage hitchhiker. He also ran with the outrageous Hollywood set, counting Errol Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, Katherine Hepburn and Greta Garbo among his friends, and lost most of his fortune backing ill-fated Broadway plays. When he died, having been abandoned by tennis and most of his friends after the second sex scandal, he was alone in a motel room with less than 100 dollars to his name.
28. Don Budge: The American was straight from the old school, playing in long white flannel trousers and shoes that had been meticulously, lovingly whitened. Budge also used an extremely heavy wooden racket, and opted against using leather grips as he preferred to hold on to bare wood. A polite fellow, Budge argued over line-calls about as often as he walked on to Centre Court with grass smudges on his knees - never. In the 1937 final, he heard his opponent, Germany's Gottfried Von Cramm, take a call from Hitler before they walked on court. Hitler told Cramm that he had to win for the fatherland. "All we heard was him saying, 'Ja, mein Fuhrer'," Budge said. "Gottfried came out pale and serious and played every point as if his life depended on it."
Budge beat his petrified opponent, and also defended his title the following summer by defeating Britain's Bunny Austin in the final.
That 1938 win was part of his calendar sweep of the four slams that season, the first time that a man had won all the majors in one year.
A term was borrowed from the bridge tables - winning all four majors became known as the grand slam.
27. Serena Williams: She may go on court with designer handbags and outrageous earrings, but don't for a minute think that the American is anything other than ferociously competitive on court. Serena has won two Wimbledon titles, in 2002 and 2003, and on both occasions she had to beat older sister Venus in the final. Those all-Williams finals have rarely lived up to the hype, and some conspiracy theorists have even gone so far as to suggest that their father Richard decided beforehand who was going to win. Last summer, she finished as the runner-up to her sister, and she is the bookmakers' favourite this summer.
26. Chris Evert: Known as the Ice Maiden for having icicles in her veins on court, the American won her first Wimbledon title in 1974.
That same year, her fiancé, Jimmy Connors, won the men's crown, and the two of them danced together at the Champions' Ball. Their romance became known as the 'Love Match'. However, they broke off the engagement later that year so there was no happy ending. But she did go on to win two more Venus Rosewater Dishes, with triumphs in 1976 and 1981, and also married and then divorced Britain's John Lloyd.
25. Arthur Ashe: Growing up in the American South, the black-skinned Ashe was subjected to years of racial abuse, and was denied entry to clubs and competitions. But Ashe countered the racists with a Gandhi-like dignity. That same quiet composure and intelligence helped him to defeat one of the loud men of tennis, Jimmy Connors, in the 1975 Wimbledon final. Never mind that Connors was staring Ashe down during the changeovers. Ashe had devised a cute tactical plan on a napkin the night before, and took most of the pace off his shots to give Jimbo nothing to play with. Ashe, the only black male to have won the Wimbledon title, was given an infected blood transfusion after an operation in the early Eighties, and died of AIDS-related complications in 1993. One of the real good guys of men's tennis.
24. Roy Emerson: His childhood as the son of a dairy farmer in Black Butt in Queensland helped his tennis - milking all those cows as a boy had helped him to develop the muscles needed for his time on court.
'Emmo' was a popular, friendly presence on the tennis circuit, and he even shared a London flat with the fellow Australian he beat in the 1964 and 1965 Wimbledon finals - Fred Stolle. "On the day of the finals, I made sure that I cooked Fred breakfast," Emerson recalled.
23. John Newcombe: The Australian won three Wimbledon titles, in 1967, 1970 and 1971, but he was never given the chance to possibly win three in succession as he was barred from the tournament in the summer because of a dispute over professional contracts. Newcombe's great claim to Wimbledon fame was that he was the first champion with a moustache since the 1909 tournament.
22. Lew Hoad: One of the most laid-back characters to have won Wimbledon, it often seemed as though the Australian was as happy drinking cold beers with his mates as he was winning on Centre Court.
Hoad, born in Sydney, had developed great strength by training as a boxer in his younger years, and that muscularity often allowed him to squelch opponents. Hoad won his first Wimbledon trophy in 1956, and successfully defending his golden pot a year later. If he had been a bit more serious-minded, if he had swapped the smiles for snarls, how many more Wimbledon titles could he have won?
21. Martina Hingis: The Little Swiss Miss was just 16 years old when she beat Jana Novotna in the 1997 Wimbledon final, and so became the youngest champion of the professional era. Hingis displayed an excellent tennis brain; she played tennis with an exceptionally high IQ, Mensa stuff off the strings. But, ten years on, and Hingis tested positive for cocaine after a third-round defeat, and was banned from the game. In the space of a decade, Hingis had gone from a sweet-16 prodigy to a scandal-hit veteran.
20. Andre Agassi: In his early tennis-punk years, Agassi skipped three Wimbledons, arguing that grass wasn't for him and also expressing some annoyance that the All England Club officials wouldn't allow him to wear his multi-coloured clothing. But the showman from Nevada returned to Wimbledon in 1991, and with much speculation about whether he would stick to the Wimbledon white ruling, he teased the officials. Standing on court before his first match, he peeled off the tracksuit to reveal a white shirt, white shorts, white socks and white shoes. The white knight reached the quarter-finals, and the following year went all the way, beating Goran Ivanisevic in the final to win his first grand slam title. At the moment of victory, he flung himself back on to the grass - the surface he had once professed to loathe. And so began the metamorphosis of Agassi.
19. Rafael Nadal: The Spaniard had quite a summer last year, as he became the first man in history to win the French Open in Paris and then came to London to win both the Queen's Club and Wimbledon titles.
In 2006 and 2007, Nadal had finished as the runner-up to Federer . But last year he won he was finally able to perform his signature trophy-biting celebration at Wimbledon, biting into the golden Challenge Cup. What a way to win it, by beating the greatest player of all time in what was widely regarded as the greatest match of all time.
18. Dorothea Lambert-Chambers: Only Martina Navratilova and Helen Wills-Moody have won more titles than Lambert-Chambers, a Londoner and a seven-time champion. She also wrote a book on the game, simply called, 'Tennis for Ladies', which was published around 1910, and which probably didn't contain tips on how to grunt, shriek and scream when you hit the ball.
17. Stefan Edberg: While the Swede played an attacking serve-and-volley game that often fried the nerves of his supporters, he was an emotional flat-liner, an implacable figure on Centre Court, one cool cat. Edberg rarely ever got more heated than a winter's day in downtown Stockholm. The risky tennis and the steadfast temperament brought him two Wimbledon titles as he beat Boris Becker in 1988 and 1990. Tim Henman greatly admired his work. Edberg now makes his money through property and investments.
16. Jimmy Connors: His nickname of 'Jimbo' created the misleading impression that he was friendly on court; in fact, he famously remarked that "some people don't seem to understand that it's damn war out there". Connors was the master of changeover trash-talking, and staring down his opponents - anything that might intimidate his opponent. He was a street-fighter of a tennis player, and wouldn't give up on a single point. He growled and grappled his way to two Wimbledon crowns, beating Ken Rosewall in 1974 and then John McEnroe in 1982.
15. Fred Perry: Perhaps it is difficult to believe, but there was once a time when Fred Perry wasn't a statue in the grounds of the All England Club and was actually flesh and blood. Perry, who was from a humble Stockport background, won three successive titles on Centre Court, from 1934-6, but he never endeared himself to some of the All England Club hierarchy. His name is still on the tip of everyone's tongue on the British tennis scene, as no British man has won Wimbledon since him, and Andy Murray has an endorsement deal with Fred Perry Clothing. Murray will be wearing some retro Perry kit this summer. This is the centenary year of Perry's birthday.
14. Maureen Connolly: Her first love was horse riding, but her mother couldn't afford the lessons, and she turned to tennis. Little Mo snaffled a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles, from 1952-4, and was a popular figure back home in the United States. But that did not stop her from speaking of "the dark destiny" of her tennis career. "I always believed greatness on a tennis court was my destiny, a dark destiny at times, where the court became my secret jungle and I, a lonely, fear-stricken hunter. I was a strange little girl armed with hate, fear, and a golden racket," Connolly once said.
13. Suzanne Lenglen: She was French and she was fabulous. One of the first racket-twirling divas, Lenglen used to sip brandy during the change of ends. And - shock horror - Lenglen showed her ankles to the world, sported a short hairstyle, and refused to wear a corset at Wimbledon. Polite society didn't know what had hit it, as Lenglen won the Wimbledon title in 1925. The French press nicknamed her 'La Divine' (the divine one), and she did much to get the starch out of the clothes and out of tennis as whole. She won six Wimbledon titles, with an uninterrupted stretch of five crowns from 1919-23, and the last in 1925.
12. Billie Jean King: There was much more to King than her being the first woman wearing glasses to win the Wimbledon title. She finished her career with six singles titles, and 20 Wimbledon titles in all, giving her a share of the overall record with Martina Navratilova. As well as hitting the tennis balls on court, King founded the women's tennis tour, and recently she was instrumental in persuading the All England Club that they should be paying equal prize-money to the female competitors.
11. John McEnroe: The casual tennis fan knows all about the New Yorker's "You cannot be serious" tantrums on Centre Court. And McEnroe probably did more than anyone to raise the standard of the officiating at the All England Club. But McEnroe was much more than just an excitable presence with his wild, curly hair erupting over the top of a flaming red headband; he was also a fabulous, fantastic tennis player who won three Wimbledon titles. McEnroe lost the drama-filled 1980 final to Bjorn Borg, but the following year he came back and prevented the Ice Man from winning six trophies in a row. In 1983, he beat New Zealand's Chris Lewis for the loss of just six games, and the year after that he dropped even fewer games for a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory over fellow American Jimmy Connors. But his greatest rivalry was with Borg. The hothead and the Ice Man had the greatest of respect for each other.
10. Margaret Court: Big Marge dominated the tour in the Sixties and Seventies, winning her first two Wimbledon titles in 1963 and 1965.
She quit the circuit in 1966 to marry and start a family, but returned to the game and in 1970 she won all four majors to achieve the grand slam. On the Wimbledon leg of that grand slam, Court and Billie Jean King contested what was one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history, with the Australian eventually closing out a 14-12, 11-9 victory. In addition to her three Wimbledon trophies, Court won a further 21 grand slam singles titles, taking her singles tally to 24.
9. Boris Becker: The German was an unseeded 17-year-old when he won the 1985 Championships, beating Kevin Curren in the final. He was the youngest ever male winner, the first unseeded champion, and the first German winner, and he immediately became an overnight international sporting superstar. But just to prove that his breakthrough victory had not been a fluke, Becker came back the next summer and successfully defended his golden Challenge Cup, with a win over Ivan Lendl. Still, he wasn't able to achieve a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles, as he lost in the second round of the 1987 tournament. It took a 19-year-old to put the result into proper perspective: "No one died." Still, Boris, with his 'Boom Boom' serve, won a third trophy by beating Stefan Edberg in the 1989 final.
8. Helen Wills Moody: The American was an introverted, shy woman, to the point of being socially awkward, and on court she would show little emotion and ignore her opponent and the crowd. But that shyness was often wrongly and unfairly seen as her being aloof and arrogant, and she became known as 'Little Miss Poker Face', 'Queen Helen' and 'The Imperial Helen'. See, even back then, between the World Wars, the public wanted to see their stars emoting. But 'Little Miss Poker Face' went on to win eight Wimbledon titles, winning four in a row from 1927-30, and then the rest in 1932, 1933, 1935 and 1938. A serious woman and a serious champion.
7. Venus Williams: The Californian may have a kooky off-court air, but she is the finest grass-court player of her generation. This summer she is attempting to become the first woman to win three successive Wimbledon titles since Steffi Graf from 1991-3, and could take her tally of Venus Rosewater Dishes to six. She won her first title in 2000, added a second a year later, picked up a third in 2005, won her fourth in 2007 when she was hitting the ball so violently that she made Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli's wrist sting, and last summer she won a fifth by beating her younger sister Serena in the final. The only two finals she lost were to Serena in 2002 and 2003.
6. Steffi Graf: Fraulein Forehand ran around her backhand to glorious effect on the way to winning seven Wimbledon titles. Graf is now 40.
But when she appeared at last month's opening ceremony at the All England Club for the new roof over Centre Court she looked to be in such excellent shape, and was hitting the ball with such power and control, that if she had been given a wild card into this year's tournament it would not have been altogether that surprising if she went on to make the second week of the grass-court slam.
5. Rod Laver: The Australian was such a gifted striker of the ball that it was said that he probably could have put down his racket, gone into the kitchen to fetch a frying pan, and still have come back and slammed aces. Laver, who had none of the pretence and bombast of some other lesser players, put himself down as a 5ft 8in "runt". But others called him either the Rockhampton Rocket, after his home town Down Under, or simply, 'The Greatest'. Laver won four Wimbledon titles, and could have had double that number. His first two trophies came in 1961 and 1962, but then, as a professional, he was barred from playing against until the tennis tour went 'open' in 1968. He won again that summer, and also in 1969. His wins in 1962 and 1969 were part of his two calendar grand slams. He was a class act, and is Roger Federer's hero. He handed Federer the Australian Open trophy one year, and the Swiss burst into tears. Everyone likes the Rocket.
4. Bjorn Borg: The Swede was the Iceman of the courts; he famously never shaved during the tournaments and also refrained from sex. Borg was the first rock star of tennis, or lawn tennis as it was quaintly called back then, and so he could probably tell you stories that would make even Jilly Cooper blush. "When I first played at Wimbledon, in 1973, it was crazy. I was this young Swedish guy with long hair, and suddenly it went mad and there were girls everywhere. There were girls on the way to the practice court, girls by the match court, and girls waiting in the lobby of my hotel," said Borg. "The girls had found out where I was staying and so when I went into the lobby there were hundreds of them waiting for me. They were screaming and they wanted my autograph, they wanted to talk to me and they wanted to get close to me. It was like I was a pop star. Tennis had never seen anything like it before."
3. Pete Sampras: The American's game was built for the grass courts of south-west London, and it brought him seven titles in all. Sampras won three trophies in a row from 1993-5, and then went on a streak of four trophies from 1997-2000. In beating Andre Agassi in the 1999 final, he played tennis that was pretty close to perfection. But Sampras was denied a successive fifth title, which would have allowed him to equal Bjorn Borg's record, when he was beaten in the fourth round of the 2001 tournament by a certain Roger Federer. Borg made a light-hearted phone-call to Federer after that, to thank him for keeping his record intact. The one true pity for Sampras was that he doesn't exactly have warm, gooey memories from his last appearance at the All England Club.
That came in 2002 when, playing on the 'Graveyard of Champions' Court Two, he was beaten in the second round by a journeyman from Switzerland, George Bastl. Andy Murray considers him to be the best men's grass-court player of all time.
2. Roger Federer: The golden stretch began in the summer of 2003, when the Swiss scored his first grand slam title on Centre Court by beating Australian Mark Philippoussis. Four more golden Challenge Cups followed, and so when Federer defeated Spain's Rafael Nadal over five sets in the 2007 final, that meant he had equalled Bjorn Borg's record of five titles in succession. Borg was there to see it in 2007, taking it all in from the front row of the Royal Box. There were tears from Federer. Afterwards, Federer and Borg met for what was described as "a Swedish hug". However, Federer was unable to supersede Borg's five as he was beaten by Nadal in last summer's extraordinary final. He goes into this summer's Wimbledon as the favourite, hoping to regain his golden Challenge Cup. Federer is just 27, and so has the time and the ambition to possibly equal and supersede Pete Sampras' record.
1. Martina Navratilova: The greatest Wimbledon champion of all time, just above Roger Federer, who is the greatest player of all time. If she has a trophy room at home, she would need at least a couple of cabinets for her replica Wimbledon silverware, as she has 20 Wimbledon trophies in all, including a record nine Venus Rosewater Dishes for singles victories. Navratilova won her first title in 1978, and then scored six Dishes in a row from 1982 to 1987, with that run coming to an end when she lost in the 1988 final to Germany's Steffi Graf. Her ninth came at the 1990 women's tournament when she defeated America's Zina Garrison in the final. An extraordinary athlete.