Stan Smith thought that 95 per cent of the people in the world who knew his name had no idea he used to be a tennis player. That was until his wife corrected him: “Make that 99 per cent.” 

Even at Wimbledon, among tennis enthusiasts, there are still some unaware that Stan Smith is more than a name and a portrait on the tongue of an iconic shoe. They are surprised to hear he was once the gentlemen’s singles champion back in the summer of 1972, a different time when the tennis balls were white, the players didn’t sit down when changing ends and they had to do their own laundry (which meant going looking for launderettes in London between matches). 

Even in the Royal Box, Smith, with his moustache and amiable air, is as likely to be talking about his Adidas sneaker – with more than 100 million pairs sold around the world – as he is to be discussing the summer he defeated Ilie Nastase in five sets. Smith was sitting in the Royal Box during the gentlemen’s singles final one year when the British actor Hugh Grant, who was in the row in front, leant back in his seat and said to the American, “I was wearing your shoes when I first kissed a girl.”

“Unless you’re 60 or older, or you’re really into your tennis, why would you know who I am? It’s pretty natural that people would know my name from the shoe. The shoe has done pretty well,” said Smith, who was, of course, wearing a pair of his own Stan Smith sneakers when talking to wimbledon.com at the All England Club.

While the Stan Smith sneaker is now thought of as a fashion shoe, in the early 1970s it was considered to be high performance tennis footwear as it was replacing the canvas trainers that players had previously worn.

“Now it’s not considered a performance shoe at all,” Smith said. “I’ve got a niece who lives in London. When she was at school, she was wearing my shoes and the teacher said to her, ‘You can’t wear those shoes for PE.’ She said, ‘Why not?’ The teacher said, ‘Those aren’t trainers, those are fashion shoes.’ She said: ‘Well, my uncle won Wimbledon in those shoes.’ The teacher said, ‘Well, I guess that’s OK then.’” 

To give himself more traction, Smith sometimes cut holes into the sides of his shoes. Playing in the Qualifying at Roehampton one year, he put socks over his shoes, thinking that would give him more grip on the court, but he removed them as they had picked up moisture from the grass and had turned soggy. “My shoe had the same bottom as it does now. The sole didn’t help that much,” said Smith, who has recently published a book with his business partner of 30 years, Gary Niebur, called ‘Winning Trust: How to Create Moments that Matter’.

Wimbledon was a different world in the 1970s. “There were set meals for the players each day. Monday might have been steak, Tuesday was chicken, Wednesday was lamb, and so on, and if you didn’t like that you got the cucumber sandwiches. You couldn’t play five sets on cucumber sandwiches,” Smith recalled.

“As players, we used to get one ticket every other day. You had to barter with other players if you wanted two tickets for your match. In 1972, there wasn’t a laundry service. We were washing our own clothes during Wimbledon. Today the players are taken care of, as are their families and coaches. It’s a unique place. It’s always been considered the tournament to win. We used to play the Australian Open and the US Open on grass. It’s now the only Grand Slam on grass and that makes it even more special. I’ve seen Wimbledon’s evolution and how it has continued to improve.”

Fifty-three years after winning Wimbledon, Smith still has a strong mental picture of one shot he played in the fifth set. “It was 5-5 and I was 0-30 down on my serve. Ilie played a passing shot and I reached out and hit a ball on the edge of the racket. It hit the net, went over and touched the line. Nastase was able to get to the ball but he missed the shot. He still reminds me of that shot. When I see him, he says, ‘You’re so lucky, you’re so lucky, you hit the line’.

He’s got a long memory. "If my shot had been out, that would have made it 0-40,” said Smith, who held serve and went on to take the set 7-5. If you're looking for moments that matter, that was one. 

Smith had lost in the Wimbledon final the year before, going down in five sets to Australia’s John Newcombe. If that key shot against Nastase had been out, would he have gone on to be Wimbledon champion and to end up selling so many pairs of shoes? 

The year Smith won was the first summer that the Duchess of Kent presented the trophy. “We became friends over the years. We had tea and dinner a few times and went to her house,” said Smith, who  also built a bond with another generation of royals, giving some shoes to the Princess of Wales, the patron of the All England Club, for her children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. 

It’s now 25 years since an American man last won Wimbledon: that was Pete Sampras in 2000. More widely, it’s 22 years since a male player from the United States – once the superpower of all tennis superpowers – lifted one of the four Grand Slam trophies, with a long empty period after Andy Roddick’s run to the 2003 US Open title.

“There’s obviously not as much pressure on the Americans at Wimbledon as there is on the British. But I’m sure they’re always being asked, ‘Is an American man ever going to win another major?’ That’s probably annoying for them,” said Smith, who also won the 1971 US Open. “They’re not part of history – they’re playing today. They have their own aspirations and goals. They all want to win Wimbledon, just like any other player."

 American tennis is “going well”, according to Smith, who said that Taylor Fritz, who plays Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals on Friday, “might have a shot this year”.

“I’ve watched a fair amount of Taylor. He’s got the weapons for grass. It starts with the serve. And he’s got a huge forehand. He’s also got a solid backhand and he can volley. Taylor is very capable. And he’s done well on the grass so his confidence level has got to be high. It will come down to whether he can produce in the big moments or not.” 

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