On Tuesday, June 30, 1908, Charlotte Cooper Sterry, a mother of two from Ealing, strapped her racket on to her bicycle, rode to the All England Club, donned an ankle-length tennis dress and proceeded to win the last of her five Wimbledon ladies' singles titles.
“Chattie”, a tall, elegant performer who was the first woman to win any individual Olympic title, had lost her hearing at 26 but it never stopped her battling on with rare fortitude to win four of those Wimbledon titles while totally deaf. At 37, she was, and remains, the oldest woman to win.
Today, 109 years on and in a 124th final that will be watched by the world, how Chattie would have loved to see her indomitable spirit embodied in another extraordinary 37-year-old five-time champion and Olympic gold medallist, who stands on the verge of becoming the most venerable victor since the Londoner.
For wouldn’t it be a tale for the ages if Venus Williams, the colossus who’s beaten serious illness to rebuild her stellar career and fought through tears of anguish over off-court trauma the past fortnight, could defeat Garbiñe Muguruza to lift the trophy that embraces her name - the Venus Rosewater Dish - for a sixth time?
This promises to be a wonderfully compelling showdown and it would stretch credulity for the great American to land her first Grand Slam title for nine years in her ninth final at her 20th Wimbledon, thus keeping the title in the hands of sport’s most storied family.
Yet while champion Serena Williams is back home in Florida cheering on the soon-to-be ‘Auntie Venus’ from afar, Muguruza scents the opportunity here to spoil the outlandish script while penning an historic one of her own.
The 23-year-old says that she loves staring at the names of all the previous champions on the Centre Court honours board and can’t help noticing that “for the last years, you see a lot of the Williams surname.” Yes, 12 times in 17 years to be precise, including 2015 when the then novice Muguruza happened to be the seventh final victim of Miss S Williams. “So I look forward to just put a Spanish name back there,” she muses.
Glancing across the board, her eye eventually falls on the name of Miss C Martinez - and what inspiration it offers as she ponders some parallels with today.
For in 1994, it was Conchita Martinez who scuppered a perfect plot line involving a 37-year-old legend, beating Martina Navratilova in her last singles final to become Spain’s first and only ladies' champion.
How appropriate that now Martinez is here helping guide Muguruza following the loss of her French Open title. Conchita laughs about being a fidgeting bundle of nerves in the box but Muguruza already swears that off court she’s made her feel calmer, more relaxed.
“To have her by my side gives me this little confidence on having someone who’s won before,” says Muguruza and the result has been striking as she’s careered into the final, losing only one set to Angelique Kerber in the highest quality match of the Championships.
Williams, who brought a merciless end to home hopes by dominating Johanna Konta in the semi-final, has also given up just the one set. The statistics tell of the two best servers in the tournament, a pair who have both won over 90 per cent of games on their delivery, and Konta, for one, thinks it’s going to be fast, exciting, aggressive and a “great match”, while swearing that it looks too close to call.
Ultimately, could it be decided on an invisible force of will and self-belief? Muguruza says her mind is stronger now. Ah, but when she looks at that unceasing intensity of her rival and wonders, as we all do, how someone who’s achieved so much can maintain the motivation and exceptional quality after 23 years as a professional, she must tip her hat. “Incredible. I don’t think I could play at her level when I’m 37,” she marvelled yesterday.
Williams still seems quite indestructible. Once, after a series of injuries, she reached another Wimbledon final and a headline screamed “the miraculous resurgence of Venus.” Well, that was 12 years ago - and Venus is still rising.
It’s finals day too in the doubles on Centre Court with Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo seeking to win the gentlemen’s event for a third straight grass court tournament triumph this summer against Austrian Oliver Marach and Croatia's Mate Pavic, the No.16 seeds.
A grand day concludes with Hao-Ching Chan, of Chinese Taipei, and Romania’s Monica Niculescu against Russia’s No.2 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who could put the memory of their loss in the 2015 final behind them and add the ladies' title to their Olympic gold from Rio.