As Wimbledon gets underway, one thing is certain there will be few headlines written by Welsh players over the coming two weeks. But, as Rob Cole reveals, there has been Welsh success in the past on those famous grass courts – though some of the links are tenuous. 

It is one of the hardest tasks for any Welsh journalist, trying to find a link to Wimbledon each year when the Lawn Tennis Championships come around in July.

The default is to go back to Ruabon’s Walter Clopton Wingfield (16 October, 1833 – 18 April ,1912), who was one of the pioneers of lawn tennis. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997, as the founder of modern lawn tennis, and an example of the original equipment for the sport and a bust of Wingfield himself can be seen at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.

Fifteen years on from Wingfield’s induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Swansea’s Mike Davies (9 January, 1936 – 2 November, 2015) followed him. He remains the only Welshman to have reached a Wimbledon final, joining forces with fellow Brit Bobby Wilson in the doubles final in 1960.

Despite being beaten in straight sets by Mexican Rafael Osuna and the American Denis Ralston, Davies and Wilson remained the only British men to reach a men’s singles or doubles final at the All England Club for 52 years, before Andy Murray reached the 2012 singles final.

His medal from that final remained one of Davies’ most prized possessions. His best singles result was reaching the round of 16 in 1954. Discovered in junior competitions by the great Fred Perry, Davies was Britain’s number one player in 1956 and, from 1955 to 1960, won 15 of his 22 Davis Cup singles and nine of 15 doubles.

The “Cwmdonkin Rebel” became the first British player to turn professional, signing up to a contract with Jack Kramer just a few months after his Wimbledon final appearance. As a result Davies was unable to compete in Grand Slam events and his membership of the All-England Club was cancelled until the game went open in 1968.

He moved to the US and was part of the officially ostracised travelling road show that was professional tennis, helped with the formation of a professional players’ organisation, a fore-runner of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and in 1968 was invited by the American oil tycoon Lamar Hunt to become associate director of World Championship Tennis (WCT), an organisation founded to run tournaments in conflict with the staid Grand Prix tennis circuit.

Over the next 13 years Davies, as the executive director of the WCT, spearheaded a series of innovations that boosted the game’s profile and players’ earnings, including signing tennis’s first contract with a major television network (NBC).

He changed the colour of WCT tennis balls to orange, then yellow, so that they could be more easily followed on the television screen. Coloured clothing became the norm and chairs were provided for players when 90-second change-overs were instituted to allow time for commercials.

He was behind the introduction of tie-breakers and in 1970 he put together the plans for the first million-dollar tour: 20 tournaments with 32 players under contract, each receiving $50,000. In 1972 the WCT final between Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver drew an estimated 21.3 million viewers.

In 1981, he became marketing director and then executive director of the ATP and six years late he joined the International Tennis Federation as general manager and marketing director. At the ITF he created the Grand Slam Cup.

In 2010, on the 50th anniversary of his last appearance at Wimbledon, he was invited to sit in the Royal Box on the day the Queen made her visit to the grounds.

Gerald Battrick (27 May, 1947 – 26 November, 1998) won the British Junior tennis title and was crowned champion in Paris at the French Open Junior singles title in 1965. He rose to the heights of No 3 in Britain in the early seventies and played for 11 years at Wimbledon.

Although he never went past the third round in the singles, he reached the quarter finals of the doubles in 1975. He also reached the last eight at the French Open in the doubles and rose to 53rd in the World Rankings at his peak.

So can Wales lay any sort of claim to a Wimbledon champion? Well, what about this for a slightly tenuous link to one of the greatest female player’s of all-time?

The connection begins in Llanelli and with arguably the most influential sporting family in Welsh history. John and Charles Chambers were born in Llanelli, the sons of William Chambers junior.

John went on to become the author of the Queensberry Rules in boxing, a founder member the AAA, instituted he Thames Regatta and rowed in, and then coached, the Cambridge crew in the Boat Race.

His brother, Charles, played rugby for Swansea and cricket for Glamorgan and became the first President of the Welsh Rugby Union in 1881. His Swansea-born son, Robert Lambert Chambers, moved to London and went on to marry Dorothea Douglass (3 September, 1878 – 7 January, 1960).

Douglass had won three the Wimbledon singles titles in 1903, 1904 and 1906 before her marriage to Chambers in 1907.

She then won four more titles as Mrs Lambert (1910, 1911, 1913, 1914) and appeared in the final no less than 11 times. She also won the women’s doubles three times (1913, 1919, 1920) and the Mixed Doubles once (1919).

Her total of seven Wimbledon singles victories has only been surpassed by the American duo of Helen Wills and Martina Navratilova. Had WWI not intervened her dominance of Centre Court might well have continued and brought her further honours.

She very nearly claimed an eighth singles title in 1919, when she held two match points against Suzanne Lenglen, and she also fell to the French star in the 1920 final. In 1927, at the age of 48, she played at Wimbledon for the last time and in 1981 she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Most Women’s Singles Titles at Wimbledon

Martina Navratilova (USA) 9 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987,
1990
Helen Wills Moody (USA) 8 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1938
Dorothea Lambert Chambers (UK) 7 1903, 1904, 1906, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914
Steffi Graf (GER) 7 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996
Serena Williams (USA) 7 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016

Add an Olympic gold medal in the women’s singles at Wimbledon in 1908, two All-England badminton titles and county honours at hockey for Middlesex and the full scope of her all-round sporting talents are revealed.

It may be a bit of a stretch to claim the remarkable Mrs Lambert as Welsh but, given the paucity of Welsh tennis players to champion, she is the best we can muster. Let’s hope Welsh Tennis can unearth a few gems in the not too distant future.