Wimbledon came under some slight pressure this year. Nothing too severe: the equivalent not of a broken serve but something in the region of 0-30 at 4-all in the first set. It started perfectly, as Wimbledon always does, with the champion back on Centre Court to suggest an unbroken continuity from the previous year, with no intervening tournaments in other countries, so that history becomes a seamless vista of Wimbledons stretching back to Magna Carta.
The rumbles of discontent, when they first became manifest, were also a kind of throwback – to the 1970s. Back then Wimbledon felt like – in fact prided itself on being – a leftover from some ancien regime, with the players toiling and serfing on the lawns of a feudal estate.