The UK came to a standstill 40 years ago when Britain’s Virginia Wade beat Dutchwoman Betty Stove for the Wimbledon title.

Turns out things were pretty similar in the Netherlands, too.

After Stove not only reached the singles final but also the mixed doubles and doubles championship matches, Holland went mad for the Rotterdam-born serve-and-volleyer.

The Dutch Parliament and then Prime Minister Joop den Uyl ordered a television set into the building so they could watch Stove’s match, which took place on a Friday when the lower house was in session.

Now 72 years of age, Stove still occasionally runs into compatriots who remember exactly where they were on 1 July, 1977, the day of the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles final.

“Sometimes, people come up to me to say ‘Oh, we were in Austria on a camp site and we had to find a television set to watch your final’ or ‘we were on a boat in [the Dutch province of] Friesland and we listened to your match on the radio,” Stove said in interview from her home in Belgium. “It’s always nice to hear those stories.”

To this day, Stove is still the country’s most successful tennis player alongside Tom Okker.

Nicknamed “The Dutchess”, the 5ft 11ins (1.80m) tall Stove made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon in 1964 and played her final major tournament at the 1985 US Open, where she competed in the women’s doubles event. Stove appeared in 28 Grand Slam finals, winning 10 doubles championships, and was ranked at a career-high No. 5 in the world after the Wimbledon singles final. No Dutch woman has ever been ranked that high since.

Although Stove said she was very disappointed to have lost all three Wimbledon finals, her overarching feeling 40 years later is one of pride.

“My main memory of 1977 is that I reached three finals,” she said. “As a total player, which is what I considered myself to be, doubles and mixed doubles was also very important.”

Stove could rely on the support of a former British Wimbledon winner ahead of her quarter-final win over rising star Martina Navratilova in 1977.

“In those days, we couldn’t practice at the All England Club, so I practiced with Ann Jones, who was a lefty like Martina, the day before at Queen’s Club,” she said. “Back in those days, we didn’t have coaches, or hitting partners, so we all helped each other out.”

After she beat Navratilova in three sets, Stove played Britain’s Sue Barker on Centre Court.

“The British press were already writing about an all-English final after Virginia beat Chris Evert, but it didn’t work out that way,” Stove said. “When you play in front of a home crowd, like Sue did, you do feel extra pressure. But I played a very good match and I knew what would await me in the final against another British player.”

With Queen Elizabeth II watching from the Royal Box and the crowd against her, Stove took the first set in the final before trailing 0-3 in the second.

“I managed to get back to 3-all, but it was such an effort and I think the crowd could sense it,” Stove said. “Virginia was getting more confident and probably her nerves were settling as I started to make some mistakes. And then it was very hard to regroup and try and play like in the first set.”

Although Stove would eventually lose 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to Wade, her run on the lawns of the All England Club had a big impact in the Netherlands, a small country without a long sporting tradition that was normally obsessed with football in the summer and speed skating in the winter.

Stove was elected Dutch Sportswoman of the Year in 1977, no mean feat given she was up against a host of Olympic speed skaters who had taken part in the 1976 Winter Games. She was also honoured by Dutch Queen Juliana while the country’s tennis association, KNLTB, created an award in her name which is handed out to the best female player at the end of the season.

But it was off the court that Stove’s influence was perhaps felt the most.

Stove, who speaks six languages, helped found the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in 1973 and served three terms as its president. After her retirement from tennis, she became the first female member of the committee of management of the International Tennis Federation. Stove was also a highly succesful coach, who guided Hana Mandlikova to four Grand Slam titles between 1980 and 1990 and worked with former Dutch pro Kristie Boogert in 1994.

Although Stove stopped playing tennis in 2000, and has since become an accomplished golfer, she still visits Wimbledon every year.

“I first came to the All England Club in 1963, when I played in a junior event,” Stove recalled. “I remember being so nervous. But after all those years, Wimbledon has remained for me the most classic of all four Grand Slam tournaments. There is so much tradition and the organisation is just perfect.”