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A mountain to climb for Murray
Steven LynchOctober 6, 2014
Worryingly for Andy Murray, it seems quite rare for someone to regain the Wimbledon singles title after losing it. What's the longest gap between titles? asked Mike Castle
You're right to point out that it's reasonably unusual for someone to regain the men's singles title at Wimbledon. The first person to do this after the Second World War was Rod Laver, as late as 1968, the first Open Wimbledon: he had previously won as an amateur in 1961 and 1962. Since Laver, nine men have regained the men's singles title after missing a year or more - John Newcombe, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
There were eight years between Connors' first title, in 1974, and his second in 1982. This is the modern (Open-era) record, but Bill Tilden went nine years between his second title, in 1921, and his third and last one in 1930. The women's record is also nine years, by Evonne Goolagong-Cawley between 1971 and 1980.
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