John Newcombe is one of the great Wimbledon champions. The Australian won the singles title in 1967, 1970 and 1971, and was beaten in the 1969 final by his fellow countryman Rod Laver. With Tony Roche, Newcombe won the Wimbledon doubles title five times and won once with Ken Fletcher. He also won Grand Slams singles at the Australian Open twice and once at the US Open.

Born in Sydney in May, 1944, Newcombe first played at Wimbledon in 1961 and his last appearance in the Championships was in 1978 when he lost in the fourth round of the singles to the Mexican Raul Ramirez. But he has competed each year since by appearing in the invitation veterans' doubles.

Newcombe says: "I first went to Wimbledon in 1961 and have been every year since with the exception of 1975 when I had a cartilage out. My first trip was with the Australian team with Fred Stolle, Bob Hewitt, Ken Fletcher. I had just turned 17.

"At that stage I had only listened on the radio to Wimbledon and from that I had a mental picture of what it looked like. The first day I went there we caught the train to Southfields and walked to the grounds. Wimbledon was exactly as I had pictured it to be in my mind.

"I was in the main draw from the start, my opening match was on Court One against Jan Eric Lundquist of Sweden who was about eight in the world at the time. I was down two sets to love, I won the next two sets and I led 2 1 and a break in the fifth. I lost that fifth set 6 4. In the doubles Fletcher and I made the semis where we lost to Roy Emerson and Neale Fraser, having played my first match on Centre Court in the quarters against the British Davis Cup pair Alan Mills and Bobby Wilson who we beat 6 4 in the fifth.

That match was late evening and I had the experience of the electricity of the Centre Court because it was packed, a full house for the whole match. It had been a great year for me, first time there and I had the full taste of Wimbledon.

"I had started my love affair with Wimbledon. But one of the strange things about Wimbledon for me was that until I won the title for the first time in 1967 I had not reached the quarter finals of the singles. I never lost easily but I wasn't breaking through. My first Grand Slam singles final was in 1966 at the US championships when I lost to Stolle and I had already won the doubles twice at Wimbledon in 1965 and 1966. But I had not made that breakthrough in singles until 1967.

"So after not being able to get beyond the quarters I was in the final for four of the next five years, against Wilhelm Bungert to win in 1967, then I lost to Rod Laver in 1969, 1970 I beat Ken Rosewall, 1971 I beat Stan Smith. I was not able to play in 1972 because I was under contract to World Championship Tennis and in 1973 there was the player boycott.

"Favourite matches? I would list two. The best would have to be the final over Rosewall in 1970 because that signalled my arrival at the top in open tennis. I had led two sets to one and 3 1 and I was killing him. Then the crowd picked him up, 99 per cent for him, I got upset with the crowd who were cheering my mistakes and he came back to win the fourth 6 3. I had got angry, I had lost focus on the match, but with everything then having gone his way I was able to put myself back into a zone and win the final set 6 1.Then, that same year, in the quarters I had beaten Emerson 11 9 in the fifth set on Court One, about four hours and 45 minutes out there, a classic. So it would be those two.

"Learning experiences? First round 1964 I played Stolle first round. He beat me in straight sets after I had set points in the first, a lead of 5 2 in the second and 4 1 in the third. I came off and could not remember what had happened in the match, it was a blank and is to this day. I realised that I had allowed the emotions of the Centre Court to envelop me. Matches like that are part of the reason why in 1970 I was able to realise what was happening to me against Rosewall and get out of it.

One of the best doubles matches we played was in the 1968 final against Stolle and Rosewall. We were out there for nearly five hours. But the night before I had been out for dinner with Roche(after he had lost the singles final to Laver) and we finished up at a party at a hotel where the Russian players were staying. We were there until about 12.30 am. After the final all the Russians were in the locker room and I said to Alex Metreveli 'I know you are our mates but why are you so happy?' Alex said 'When you were down two sets to one our manager was saying to us that he would make us go to bed at ten every night, saying look they go out, they party, and now they are going to lose the final. Then you guys came back and won it and the manager did not know what to say. '

Newcombe, who turns 60 in May hopes Wimbledon will consider introducing an over 55 event in the senior doubles. "A few of us who are around the sixty mark don't play that much these days and if you are taking on a couple of guys in their forties it is very difficult. But if we can play at our pace in our age bracket we can play much better and have more fun with the crowd. I would like to play with Roche at Wimbledon again and the opportunities are running out," he said.

In 2002 Newcombe was commentating for Australian television on a Court One match between Lleyton Hewitt and Sjeng Schalken. He remembers: "I had been changed from another court to Centre for my next doubles. I am commentating but I could see what was happening on the monitor and I asked the producer to call the referee's office he found out that I had to be on Centre within 15 minutes otherwise I was defaulted.

"One of my TV colleagues went to the dressing room and brought all my gear to the commentary booth. So I am commentating and changing into my playing clothes at the same time, like Clark Kent! Then Lleyton wins 7 5 in the fifth set, I rushed out and ran straight onto the Centre Court. I think I missed one return in the match, it was unbelievable. "

In May, 2003 Newcombe was in Brisbane on business when he suffered from a stroke. With immediate medical care and changes to his lifestyle and business pattern he made a satisfactory recovery and was back fulfilling his commitments at Wimbledon just a few weeks later.

Factfile
John David Newcombe
Born: Sydney May 23 1944
Lives: Sydney
Career prize money: $1,062,408.
Career titles: 32. Finalist: 21
Careeer doubles titles: 41/ Finalist: 27.
Highest singles ranking: 1, June 3, 1974.