When Gordon Forbes first played at Wimbledon in 1954, the South African farm boy was so overcome to have got there that he cried on court. “I dropped my first service game due to burning eyes, and finally lost the match,” he writes in A Handful of Summers, widely considered the best tennis book ever. Forbes has come a long way since. Now 79, but still with darkish hair and the athlete’s straight back, he leads me around a Wimbledon where he knows every cranny.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
At Wimbledon with Gordon Forbes - By Simon Kuper
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/baaf57ae-e444-11e2-91a3-00144feabdc0.html#slide0
When Gordon Forbes first played at Wimbledon in 1954, the South African farm boy was so overcome to have got there that he cried on court. “I dropped my first service game due to burning eyes, and finally lost the match,” he writes in A Handful of Summers, widely considered the best tennis book ever. Forbes has come a long way since. Now 79, but still with darkish hair and the athlete’s straight back, he leads me around a Wimbledon where he knows every cranny.
When Gordon Forbes first played at Wimbledon in 1954, the South African farm boy was so overcome to have got there that he cried on court. “I dropped my first service game due to burning eyes, and finally lost the match,” he writes in A Handful of Summers, widely considered the best tennis book ever. Forbes has come a long way since. Now 79, but still with darkish hair and the athlete’s straight back, he leads me around a Wimbledon where he knows every cranny.
