God at Wimbledon and the faith of tennis player, Coco Gauff

In celebration of Wimbledon starting this week, former Tennis World editor, Alastair McIver looks at how the Christian faith has always come to the fore during The Championships.

In the spring of 2000, I had the privilege of interviewing one of Britain’s greatest pre-war Davis Cup players, Henry Wilfred ‘Bunny’ Austin, in his Surrey nursing home just before his death at the age of 94.

Not only a contemporary and travelling companion of Fred Perry in the 1930’s, he was also an actor, a socialite, a political advocate, and a Christian.

We chatted about the forthcoming Championships, who might win, who might do well and so on, for a Wimbledon preview I was writing that year.

At the end, he asked me to pray for him.

It was a special moment.