In the 1960s and 1970s King dominated the game like Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf would do in generations to come and when home favourite Jones walked out to play her in the final few gave her a chance.
The only item of discussion seemed to be Jones’ kitbag, which had a huge ‘Pepsi’ logo on it. Under pressure from the BBC, the Wimbledon committee asked her to remove the name, which she did for the final.
King had thrashed her at Wimbledon two years before and while Jones had a magnificent win over Margaret Court in the semi-final, many people thought lightning was not about to strike twice, especially because of the physical and mental strain that match had caused Jones.
It seemed to be going to form when King took the first set with relative comfort. But Jones, a world class table tennis player before she turned to tennis, worked hard and battled her way back into the game.
Amazingly, she abandoned the usual baseline defensive tactics which had earned her the French title in 1961 and 1966. Jones started to take the net position from the usually more aggressive King.
Now the huge crowd on Centre Court started to play their part and their partisan support for Jones seemed to annoy the American.
Jones took her chance with both hands and swept through the third set for the greatest moment of her career.
