Having jumped over the net to shake hands with his opponent after winning the Wimbledon singles title in 1953, Vic Seixas won a £25 certificate to spend at a shop in Piccadilly Circus. On a windy and overcast early July day the cheerful American duly bought himself a sweater. Seventy-one years later the British summer is depressingly familiar but this year’s Wimbledon singles champions will be picking up cheques for £2.7 million.

The oldest living grand slam singles champion before his death, Seixas looked back on that year as his annus mirabilis. Earlier that summer he had lost in the final of the French national championships (later the French Open) to 17-year-old Ken Rosewall. He moved on to Wimbledon a few weeks later as second