He has been fêted by dictators and royalty as the man who single-handedly changed his country’s attitude to his sport. What would give Manuel Santana, the first and only Spanish man to win Wimbledon, more satisfaction than all the felicitations he has received in the past four decades is if Rafael Nadal should drive a stake through that record two weeks from Sunday.

The rippling biceps of Nadal apart, there is no more familiar emblem of Spanish tennis than the ever-courteous, gentlemanly Santana — who celebrates his 70th birthday next May — although he does not look a day over 60. Last year, he was one of the two special guests of the chairman of the All England Club and watched, enraptured, as Nadal came close to winning the title at his third attempt.

In his mind’s eye, Santana reflected upon those distant years, when he came from a less than privileged background and determined that he would become a Grand Slam champion. No one from Spain had thought about winning Wimbledon, it was not in their psyche, the sport itself was nothing more than a pastime for the idle rich. General Franco frowned upon it.

“These were difficult times in Spain,” he said. “Tennis was only for a few, but I said to myself, ‘my God, this sport is perfect for the Spanish people because we do not really like the team sports, we are a very individualistic people.’ I felt tennis was a great opportunity for me to earn a good living.” He was in a minority of one.

Even when Santana won the French Open in 1961 — an achievement he was to repeat three years later, again defeating Italian Nicola Pietrangeli, in the final — the resonance with the Spanish public was low.

“I was coming to Wimbledon but losing in the first and second rounds all the time,” he said. “I told myself that I had to do something different if I wanted to become the champion.”

Santana chose not to play at Roland Garros in 1965 and 1966, deciding instead to travel to Britain early and get used to the exaggerations and idiosyncrasies of grass.