BACK IN TIME WITH COLIN BAKER

BoB's very own Time Lord shares his memories of Wimbledon and how he played against a supercharged septuagenarian who could show Rod Laver a thing or two

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Tennis at Wimbledon in the last week of June and first in July has played a large part in my life for as long as I can remember. Hoad and Rosewall, and "Little Mo" and Doris Hart are my earliest memories of Wimbledon finalists which we watched avidly on our black and white televisions in the 1950s.

When I moved to London in 1965, I even queued up on a couple of occasions to watch the likes of Billie Jean King and Manuel Santana playing so superbly in the wooden racket, stroke playing days before the power of the modern game blasted the touch-playing geniuses off the courts. Having recently seen the extraordinary battle between Alcaraz and Sinner in the final of the French Open, you can only wonder how Laver and co would have fared against such finely honed athletic power.