1973 WAS THE BIGGEST REGRET OF MY LIFE

Wimbledon is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. But for me there is a more important anniversary.

Fifty years ago, history was being made at SW19. Professional players were allowed to enter.

For the first time, 1968 saw an ‘open’ Wimbledon. Incredibly, earlier that year, there was a danger that Wimbledon could be thrown off the schedule.

The previous August, the All England Club had broken ranks, and went against International Lawn Tennis Federation rules by inviting the world’s top professionals to play an exhibition event.

Some ILTF officials wanted Wimbledon banned from staging official tournaments. Fortunately, common sense prevailed, and tennis officialdom backed down.

How things have changed since!

Total Wimbledon prize money in 1968 was £26,150. It now stands at a whopping £26,078,000!

It was only after the Wimbledon boycott in 1973, when most of the top players refused to play because of the ILTF suspension of Nikki Pilic after he’d allegedly refused to play for Yugoslavia in the Davis Cup, that things really changed.

I didn’t have the wisdom or the guts to join the boycott, and it remains the biggest regret of my life that I was persuaded to play at Wimbledon that year.