Get yourself in the mood for SW19 by remembering these famous occasions, including Andy Murray, Tim Henman and more.
Wimbledon is fast approaching, which means Britain’s finest tennis players will have their chance to play in front of their home supporters on the biggest stage of all.
The likes of Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu are in with an outside chance of winning the singles events according to the tennis odds, and in doing so would add their names to the list of British players who have made history at SW19.
From Andy Murray’s triumph in 2013 to Virginia Wade being crowned by the Queen, here is our list of the greatest ever Wimbledon moments for the Brits.
Andy Murray becomes the history boy, 2013
With 77 years of pressure and the desperate gaze of 15,000 home supporters weighing down on him, Andy Murray finds himself with three championship points against world No.1 Novak Djokovic on Centre Court.
From there, we’ll let the man himself talk us through to the finish line.
“At 40-0, when you’re serving, you’re thinking 100 per cent it’s over,” Murray told Jonathan Ross’ chat show months later.
Not that it was ever going to be that straightforward.
“At 40-15 I’m still thinking ‘OK’, but at 40-30, I wasn’t really thinking that then. I was pretty nervous.”
Cue more angst, as Djokovic reeled off his third point in a row.
“The problem is at deuce, I’m two points away from winning, not one. Yeah, I was shitting myself.”
Thankfully, in distinctly un-British style, he recovered from said mini-choke. And, after a tortuous, 14-minute game, Djokovic found the net with a backhand return and history was made.
Murray confirmed to Ross he was “pretty happy” about succeeding Fred Perry – 1936 champion – as a British male Wimbledon winner. You would be.
Tim Henman 6-0 third set v Ivanisevic, 2001
Before Murray, the pressure to be Britain’s first man since Fred Perry to win at SW19 fell on Tim Henman, and this was the closest he ever got to winning Wimbledon.
At 1-1 in the fourth set of his semi-final against champion-to-be Ivanisevic – who only got into the tournament courtesy of a wildcard – Henman blitzed his way into a lead with a devastating set of tennis: a set destined to take him into a first final.
With the feverish crowd frenzied, and Henman flying, victory was imminent.
But then the rain fell.
Henman’s considerable momentum had dissipated by the time the players reappeared the next day – a period of time just that proved too long to think about the enormity of the situation.
While he got within two points of victory at one stage, the battle proved too steep, and he eventually wilted to a five-set defeat.
Still, he had us all dreaming.
Britain’s best Wimbledon for 80 years, 2016
You can’t ask for better than that.
Andy Murray’s second Wimbledon title was just one of five British successes across the weekend, including another singles victory and three doubles wins.
Gordon Reid became the first Brit to win multiple titles in the same Wimbledon since 1969, claiming victory in both the wheelchair doubles – with Alfie Hewett – and singles, while Jordanne Whiley secured her third successive wheelchair doubles title with Japanese player Yui Kamiji.
And to round things off, late on the final Sunday, Heather Watson – with partner Henri Kontinen – sealed the mixed doubles trophy.
Not a bad fortnight’s work.
But nobody amused us quite as much as Marcus Willis. The then-world No.772 crowned the opportunity to play Roger Federer on Centre Court with one sumptuous lobbed winner and a wide grin throughout.
Virginia Wade and the Queen, 1977
“Virginia will take tea with the Queen.”
Max Robertson’s iconic commentary line greeted Virginia Wade’s 1977 singles title win, and beautifully ensures that the two landmark elements of the day are preserved in history.
Wade’s victory was rooted in a nerveless determination to win that might so easily have been lacking, considering the home expectations.
That Sue Barker, the less likely of the two Brits to win the competition, progressed as far as the semi-final proved a useful distraction, allowing Wade to creep into the final with some focus diverted elsewhere.
But Wade had been bullish throughout. “I think I have the willpower and guts to win this tournament – and that’s what I intend to do,” she said at the time.
And by the time she was crowned champion by Queen Elizabeth – in the midst of her silver jubilee – nobody was interested in anything else.
That Her Majesty’s pink number matched Wade’s cardigan added to the romance of a British victory that was not emulated for 36 years.
Laura Robson girls’ title, 2008
Thirty-one years on, Britain believed that it had finally discovered Wade’s heir.
But though Laura Robson’s success is a happy story in itself, the potential that she has not yet fulfilled remains a frustration.
As the youngest player in the girls’ tournament in 2008, Robson defeated top seed Melanie Oudin on her way to beating Noppawan Lertcheewakarn in the final, losing just one set in the process.
Complements showered down on the 14-year-old, the youngest winner of the title since Justine Henin-Hardine, and first Brit to claim the trophy since Annabelle Croft.
Not bad company.
But the prematurely-crowned “Queen of Wimbledon” has hardly enjoyed such success since, with defeat in this year’s competition just another to add to her list of frustrating exits.
Should she shake off injury and form woes, though, adding to her SW19 crown remains a possibility.
