It was 35 years ago to this day that a young, blond, blue-eyed boy from Germany won Wimbledon for the first time. I remember following the match live over the radio and television, watching the moment Boris Becker clinched the match. It was the first big tennis match that I can still recollect following. And it sparked my interest in tennis.

Wimbledon goes hand in hand with the monsoon season here in India. Growing up in Mumbai, where the rains are quite heavy meant that outdoors time during these months was fairly limited. So I (and my family) used to look forward to Wimbledon as a source of entertainment for two weeks during this time.

It also helped that the time-zone differences between the UK and India meant that matches would start in the afternoon and go on till around bed-time. Back in the 1980s, my recollection is that only the key matches (semi-finals and finals) would be shown live on Indian television, so we had to follow updates of earlier rounds through the daily newspaper.

This changes in the early 1990s when satellite television hit India and changed our lives. Suddenly, thanks to 24 hour sports channels, we could watch the full two weeks of Wimbledon, and other Tennis Slams. And now, we have streaming video and other modes of following matches in real-time.

Thank you Boris, for kindling the love of tennis in me!