The Australian tennis player Fred Stolle, who has died aged 86, won the French Championship in 1965 and the US Championship in 1966, along with a hatful of doubles titles around the world. But he could never quite get over the line at Wimbledon, where he lost in three consecutive finals between 1963 and 1965.
Typically, however, Stolle did not allow his frustrating failure to win Wimbledon to deter him from making the most of his ability as a world-class player, or to douse the huge enjoyment he derived from being one of the game’s most popular personalities. He played in an era when, outside Wimbledon and a couple of other grand slams, the nocturnal hours were to be enjoyed as much as sunlit days on the courts of the world’s most glamorous locations.
