The tournament's infamous rain delays were over as a 22-year-old Scot won a fittingly epic, and epically loud, five-setter over Stan Wawrinka.

The contest will stand as a monument to the game’s early-21st century golden era.

Equal prize money may seem simple and logical and fair to most of us now, but it took nearly 40 years for the women to achieve that parity. And it took Venus’ stubborn efforts to finally make equal pay at the sport’s signature event a reality.

In its setting and place in time, this Wimbledon final serves as a poignant reminder of a golden era now long past, when tennis reached a peak of popularity and cultural influence it would never reach again.

Close to five decades later, Arthur Ashe's Muhammad Ali-like win remains one of the most epochal and popular upsets in tennis history.

Instead of male and female players changing the world together, King knew now that she would have to change it on her own. Soon, the fight for open tennis became a fight for women’s tennis.

A final between Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall leaves the sellout crowd ready for more, after an eight-man pros-only exhibition event invades the last bastion of amateurism: Centre Court.

Althea Gibson didn’t stop until she had proven that African-Americans could succeed at every level and on every stage of this formerly all-white sport. Centre Court, the biggest of those stages, was the final stop on her ascent.

This classic match, considered by some to be the greatest ever, wasn’t contested during Wimbledon. But the sport’s officials understood that Centre Court was the only stage big enough to host it.

The balletic 23-year-old was as responsible as anyone for the All England Club’s move from its original SW19 location on Worple Road to more spacious grounds on Church Road.