Breeding the Will to Win

How did the journey that led me to Wimbledon begin? How did I arrive at Wimbledon as doubles champion (Click Here) at the age of 43? Here is how that journey began. When I was eleven in the year 1925 my father, Robin Mulloy, built a tennis court in the garden of our home. 'Why?' I asked him curiously. 'It's the only sport you can play all your life, son', he replied. Of course I was much too young to be convinced by such a sweeping pronouncement and could not imagine why I would not be able to play football all my life. Tennis seemed such a trifling game--a soft, not too strenuous pastime for the rich. That was largely true then, and to some extent still is in the United States. And although the great Bill Tilden was electrifying his way round the tournaments, bringing a new technique and a new glory to the game, the public mind was quite firmly made up. Tennis was for the well-to-do. It was to be played in exclusive and expensive country clubs or in the private luxury that goes with Long Island mansions. Having expressed my indifference towards tennis, I showed no...