In tennis, some points are so majestic in their execution, so unfathomably brilliant in their build-up and conclusion that they elicit emotion with a mere mention.

Think, for example, of Roger Federer’s match-point saver in the fourth set tiebreak of his Wimbledon 2008 final against Rafael Nadal, an example of how to produce perfection in the most pressurised of situations.

There are those, however, that comprise of nothing more than a regulation serve being dumped into the net. But what points like this lack in glamour and stylistic significance, they can more than make up in historical significance.

For a point like this, read Althea Gibson’s moment of triumph at The Championships 1957, a point which sent racial barriers tumbling, and saw a woman born to sharecropper parents in the cotton fields of South Carolina be handed the Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles trophy by Queen Elizabeth II.

Gibson, who was born 89 years ago today, was as pioneering as they come in tennis history. The sport’s answer to Jackie Robinson, it was she who became the first African-American player to win amongst the all-white outfits of Wimbledon.

As a girl, Gibson would often play truant from school on the streets of Harlem, but quickly developed a taste for sport, a field in which she believed acceptance was on offer for “what you do rather than who you are”. 

The New York City women’s paddle tennis champion at the age of 12, Gibson’s career progressed at a rate of knots. She was helped on her way by the welterweight champion in-waiting Sugar Ray Robinson, who advised her to move back down south, where she would work on her game and graduate from high school.

By 1950, it was clear to all that Gibson was a growing force in the game, having won the national black women’s tennis championship twice – she would go on to win it eight more times in a row. 

But there was another opponent for her to overcome - segregation. With Gibson yet to receive an invite to the 1950 U.S National Championships, Alice Marble, a white tennis player who ended her career with five Grand Slam titles, lobbied for Gibson to be included in the competition, railing against the exclusion of African-American athletes.

“If tennis is a game for ladies and gentlemen, it’s also time we acted a little more like gentlepeople and less like sanctimonious hypocrites. If Althea Gibson represents a challenge to the present crop of women players, it’s only fair that they should meet that challenge on the courts,” she wrote in a seminal editorial in American Tennis Magazine.

Consequently, at the age of 23, Gibson became the first African-American player to compete in a Grand Slam event. From that point, her career was hallmarked by historical achievements. She won the French Open in 1956 to become the first black player to win a Grand Slam title, which she followed up with her Wimbledon triumph in 1957, where she became the first champion to be handed the trophy personally by Queen Elizabeth. “Shaking hands with the Queen of England,” remarked Gibson, “was a long way from being forced to sit in the coloured section of the bus”. 

Upon returning home, Gibson became only the second black athlete to be celebrated with a ticker tape parade in New York City, and she promptly went on to become the first black player to win the U.S Championships.

While the spectre of animosity and segregation often loomed large – Gibson was denied entry to some hotels, with one even refusing to accept a reservation for celebratory lunch in her honour - she kept on winning, finishing her career with 11 Grand Slam titles and six doubles titles.

But more importantly, she kept on blazing a trail. “If it hadn’t been for her, it wouldn’t have been so easy for Arthur Ashe and the ones who followed,” remarked Billie Jean King.

Of the ones who followed, Venus and Serena Williams have gone on to become two of the most celebrated and prominent players on the women’s tour, with both often recognising what she did for African-American tennis.

Gibson won better points than the one that saw her seal Wimbledon glory against fellow American and doubles partner Darlene Hard, but few more hold such significance in the history books.

“I am honoured to have followed in such great footsteps,” remarked Venus after Gibson's death in 2003. "Her accomplishments set the stage for my success, and through players like myself and Serena and many others to come, her legacy will live on."