What was Richard "Pancho" Gonzalez doing there anyway, stumbling about in the game's cathedral? Sure, he may have been the greatest of all. But now, 1969, a 41-year-old grandfather, two decades beyond his last major championship, he was merely two sets behind in a first-rounder -- and furious.

It lacked nothing for drama as he and Charlie Pasarell, a leading American 16 years his junior, wended their way into a third, fourth, then the decisive fifth set of a classic that would become Wimbledon's second-longest singles match: 5 hours 12 minutes in that pre-tiebreaker age: 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9.